OFF BEAT: Man accused of fraud in reporting Maserati stolen five days after it burned

A Staten Island man’s alleged plan to collect on a fraudulent auto theft claim might have worked if the burning remains of his car hadn’t already been found a week before he reported the theft.

According to the New York Daily News, Arkady Suleymanov allegedly told his insurance company that his 2007 Maserati was stolen on Nov. 14, 2011, in Forest Hills, Queens, where he was visiting his sister.

Authorities located Mr. Suleymanov’s expensive sports car. Even more interesting is that authorities discovered that the car had been found on Nov. 9—five days before it was reported stolen—engulfed in flames in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

According to the Daily News report, an FBI agent involved in the case said investigators are not totally sure that the man in the recorded call to the insurance company was, in fact, Mr. Suleymanov. The person on the call sounded younger with greater English proficiency than Mr. Sulemanov, the agent told the newspaper.

Mr. Suleymanov was released on $200,000 bond on the fraud charge.