
A 30-year-old White man in Minnesota pleaded guilty to wire fraud on Tuesday after filing fraudulent insurance claims for a staged arson, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to court documents, on Sept. 23, 2020, Denis Vladmirovich Molla falsely reported to law enforcement that someone set his camper on fire, and that there were three unknown males near his home when he heard an explosion, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Molla’s garage door was also spray-painted graffiti stating which said “Biden 2020,” “BLM,” and an Antifa symbol. He said his camper was targeted because of a Trump 2020 flag on it.
It turns out Molla actually lit the camper on fire and spray-painted the graffito, prosecutors said.
According to the DOJ news release:
According to court documents, Molla submitted multiple insurance claims seeking coverage for the damage to his garage, camper, vehicles, and residence caused by the fire. When Molla’s insurance company denied some of those claims, Molla submitted a written complaint to the insurance company claiming that it was defrauding him and threatened to report the company to the Department of Commerce and to the Attorney General. Molla also created and allowed others to create two GoFundMe accounts to benefit Molla and his family. In total, Molla submitted more than $300,000 in fraudulent insurance claims, and he received approximately $61,000 from his insurance company. Molla also received more than $17,000 from individual donors via GoFundMe.
Molla pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. His sentencing has not yet been scheduled.
More details about the arson and fraud allegations can be found here.