Two Calif. attorneys have been convicted for their involvementin an auto fraud ring that collectively netted more than$450,000.

Leon Rubin Laufer, who worked in Beverly Hills, and StephenMarshall Weiss from San Fernando Valley both pled no contest tocharges in Los Angeles Superior Court on February 17, 2011. Laufer,59, was convicted of one count of reckless disregard for acceptingillegal referrals. Weiss, 63, pled to one count of insurance fraud.Both have been sentenced to three years of probation and 250 hoursof community service, and must abide by all professional conductrequirements under the State Bar of California.

Under a negotiated settlement, the two unlawful lawyers havejointly paid more than $145,000 in restitution to nine insurancecompanies that were defrauded through false claims for staged autoaccidents.

Of course, similar to much of the Los Angeles population, thesetwo didn't work without an entourage. In fact, the pair is believedto be part of a group of more than 300 participants in the fraudring. Their roles in the crime were minor when compared to thestars of the fraud show, Alexander Igor Gutman and Laszlo AldarBango.

Gutman, 49, of Sherman Oaks allegedly worked with Bango to netmillions of dollars by staging an estimated 2,600 “paper accidents”between 2002 and 2008. Gutman and Bango were arrested in May of2008 for their direction of a large network of attorneys (allegedlyincluding Laufer and Weiss), chiropractors, doctors, and body shopsthat worked together to process claims for phony accidents.

Authorities dubbed the year-long investigation “Operation BigFish,” and big it was. It involved 16 agencies, and thousands ofhours of work, and has scooped up a total of more than $540,000 inrestitution, as well as a long list of criminals that played a partin the scheme.

Gutman pled guilty in February 2009 to 15 counts of insurancefraud, and Bango pleaded guilty to four counts of insurance fraud.Both men's sentences are pending so for now, this Tinsel Town dramais a bit of a cliffhanger. Let's just hope for the industry's sakethat it doesn't have a sequel.