An Arizona man has been found guilty of staging car crashes to collect Insurance payouts, according to 12 News. According to the US Attorney's Office of Arizona, Isrrael Millan III, 40, of Yuma was found guilty in federal court last week on multiple counts of wire fraud and money laundering.
The man allegedly recruited other people to help him stage the events.
Prosecutors say the man borrowed two vehicles to stage a collision in Yuma. That took place in October of 2018. A month later, he allegedly arranged to have a man's home flooded and was later paid by the insurance company to perform restoration work on the property.
Court records show that another flooding incident was then staged again in December of 2018.
Millan allegedly planned an incident involving a U-Haul truck in June of 2019 in which the truck crashed into a liquor store. According to prosecutors, Millan told the store's owner to file an insurance claim so he could be paid to fix the property.
Court records state, "The insurance carrier for (the) U-Haul truck suspected the insurance claim involved fraud, did not make payments out on the claim, and instead reported the incident to the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
Millan was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit fraud, eight counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud, and four counts of money laundering. He is set to be sentenced on February 23, 2023.