Local man accused in NYC cab fraud

A Huntington Station man and four others were arrested in a massive scheme to fraudulently obtain New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission licenses and commercial insurance polices, the state attorney general's Office said Thursday.

Raja Ishtiag, 52, of 327 Maplewood Rd., and the four other men were ordered in Queens County Supreme Court to be held on bail after grand jury indictments were issued on multiple felony counts that included identity theft, criminal possession of a forged instrument, insurance fraud and scheme to defraud.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a prepared statement, "We have shut down this complex insurance fraud ring, and now these defendants will face the justice they deserve. Auto insurance fraud leads to inflated insurance rates passed along to hard-working New Yorkers."

Ishtiag pleaded guilty in 2007 in New York in an earlier scheme to defraud charge, and was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, according to court records.

The indictment unsealed in Queens County Supreme Court, said Ishtiagand the other defendants, Farhat N. Qureshi, 37, of Manhattan, Hasan Bacovic, 38, of Manhattan, and Bakry Abdelmuti, 52, of Brooklyn, engaged in an elaborate scheme to obtain insurance for livery cars in the names of shell corporations between 2007 and March 2012. Using stolen identities and false documents, the four men obtained dozens of valuable TLC licenses, officials said.

The defendants were in custody Thursday. aBail was set at $150,000 for Ishtiag, $100,000 for Qureshi, $50,000 for Bacovic and $10,000 for Abdelmuti.