Network of Uber passengers staged crashes on Long Island to bilk insurance providers, lawsuit says

A popular ride-hailing service contends it has been targeted by a sophisticated ring that stages elaborate accidents of its vehicles across Nassau County, with the passengers, many of whom share an address or bank accounts, claiming serious but bogus injuries, according to a new federal lawsuit.

Uber Technologies, along with Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Co., filed the suit Tuesday in New York's Eastern District, citing eight similar "staged hit-and-run accidents" between August 2023 and March 2025 in Hempstead, Lynbrook, Valley Stream and Westchester County. The ride-sharing service has filed similar fraud suits elsewhere in New York, Florida and California, records show.

The crashes involve a similar pattern, the suit contends.

• They all occurred late at night on residential side streets with two passengers in the vehicle, often near the pickup location.
• Each time, the Uber vehicle is gently sideswiped by a "co-conspirator" vehicle, whose driver immediately flees the scene.
• The crashes each cause minimal damage to the vehicle and the Uber driver sustains no injuries.
• The passengers, however, later report injuries to their legs, heads, necks and backs while seeking payouts from Uber's New York insurance provider.
• In many cases, the 14 named defendants, who all live in Brooklyn, Queens or Westchester, are related, share a common address or bank account used to access Uber.

The suit contends the defendants, including the unnamed hit-and-run drivers, operated as a coordinated criminal conspiracy resulting in fraudulent payments and investigative costs that contribute to rising insurance premiums and escalating prices for Uber riders.

"Though the illicit activities ... committed by the fraud ring have caused significant damages to each of the plaintiffs, the effects ripple through society causing a much larger harm on the population at large," the suit states. 

Liberty Mutual and Uber, the suit states, paid nearly $313,000 in combined loss payments and expenses in connection with the crashes identified in the suit.

Efforts by Newsday to reach the 14 named defendants were unsuccessful.

Crashes follow pattern

The first crash occurred on Aug. 13, 2023, shortly after a driver picked up Kevar Taylor and Shamarie Livingston on Brown Avenue in Hempstead, the suit states.

Following a minor collision, Taylor and Livingston told the insurance company they suffered back and leg pain although the arbitrator determined the crash was "staged" and declined to award any money, the suit states.

The ring targeted a different Uber vehicle the following week when Odean Samuels and an unnamed passenger were picked up on Maple Avenue in Hempstead, the suit states.

Samuels, records show, shares an address on East 54th Street in Brooklyn with Konato Campbell, who, along with another defendant, Anelka Green, was a passenger in a third Uber collision on Aug. 23, 2023, after being picked up on Harrison Avenue in Lynbrook.

In November 2022, Green was arrested with five other men on drug charges in Florida, records show. Three of the five are Taylor, Livingston and Renato Campbell, who was one of two passengers in an allegedly staged Uber crash on Sept. 22, 2024, in Mount Vernon, the suit states.

Another crash occurred Oct. 10, 2023, shortly after Georgette Powell and Omar Zavier Allen were picked up on Irving Street in Valley Stream, the suit alleges.

Powell later testified under oath that she is Taylor's mother and part of her insurance claim was dismissed, records show, after an arbitrator determined the crash was staged.

“I find the expression ‘once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern’ to be applicable in this situation,” the arbitrator wrote.

The next crash occurred on Oct. 26, 2023, after an Uber driver picked up Vivian Marshall and Diyonta Balfour on Rottkamp Street in Valley Stream, the suit states.

The ride, the suit contends, was booked using a phone number linked to a Brooklyn address shared by Powell, Livingston and Renato Campbell.

The most recent crash occurred March 1, 2025, after a driver picked up Shantia Whittingham and Shedah James near Green Acres Road in Valley Stream, attorneys state. 

Whittingham and James paid for the Uber ride using the same shared bank account used by Livingston, records state.

James, records show, was a passenger in two additional rideshare hit-and-run crashes last year while Whittingham was involved in another.

Unlike other federal staged accident lawsuits reported on by Newsday, the Uber case does not allege any coordination with medical providers or law firms.

The suit comes as Gov. Kathy Hochul has launched a crackdown on staged vehicle crashes that she contends causes  vehicle insurance premiums to escalate across the state

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.