Eight people and two law firms have been charged in what authorities say was more than a decade-long scheme of staging vehicle crashes in the New Orleans area and then submitting fraudulent insurance claims, leading to what prosecutors allege was the murder of one person to cover it up.
The 10-count indictment, unsealed on Monday in the Eastern District of Louisiana, said the law firms Motta Law, LLC, and The King Firm, LLC, both of New Orleans, along with eight people, including attorneys, have been charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, with some charged with additional counts.
The new indictment brings the total number of defendants charged to 63 in the federal probe into allegations of staged auto collisions, which authorities dubbed “Operation Sideswipe.”
Ryan J. Harris, 36, of New Orleans, has also been charged with witness tampering through murder, retaliation against a witness through murder and causing death through the use of a firearm. If convicted of any of those crimes, Harris would face a mandatory life sentence and up to a $250,000 fine for each count.
The complex system, beginning in 2011, involved people allegedly crashing vehicles into 18-wheelers and then fleeing while passengers in those vehicles pretended to be the drivers and lying about what happened. Authorities say those persons staged witnesses on site claiming it was the commercial vehicle’s fault, according to officials. Monday’s indictment alleges 22 collisions were staged by the defendants in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
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