Dead-cat claim leads to fraud charge

A Washington man has been charged with insurance fraud and attempted theft after using photos from the Internet to file a $20,000 insurance claim for a dead cat that didn’t exist, officials said Thursday. Yevgeniy Samsonov, 29, of Tacoma, was involved in a minor traffic accident in 2009, and the other driver’s insurer paid about $3,500 to cover chiropractic treatment. More than two years later, Samsonov claimed that his cat Tom had been killed in the accident, and he sought $20,000 in compensation.