Dallas resident 61-year-old Leroy Nelson pled guilty to submitting insurance claims totaling $5 million for road accidents that never occurred and now faces up to 30 years in federal prison and up to $500,000 in fines, according to an FBI press release.
Between 2005 and 2012, Nelson allegedly instructed numerous individuals to falsely state that they crashed into and damaged pieces of his equipment while driving. In return for cash payments from Nelson, the individuals made such fraudulent claims to their insurance companies.
Each paid individual reportedly received instructions from Nelson on how to submit a false claim to insurance companies.
According to an April 2013 indictment obtained by Breitbart Texas, “The damaged property was very technical in nature, such as: ‘Remote Aircraft Landing Marker,’ a ‘Chemical Pipeline Examiner,’ or a ‘Seismographic Probe’.” The indictment stated that Nelson would submit the same photograph of an unknown piece of “damaged” equipment to various insurance companies. He “described the equipment differently for each claim,” according to the filing.
Insurance companies would subsequently provide a check, usually totaling from $16,000 to $19,000, to one of Nelson’s various P.O. boxes, opened under the name “DBA.” The boxes were located in states including Minnesota, Missouri, Washington, Arizona, Connecticut, and Louisiana. Checks from the insurance companies were then forwarded to one of Nelson’s Dallas-based warehouses’ mailboxes, according to court records.
Nelson was ultimately successful at obtaining $3.5 million through fraudulent claims, according to the indictment. He pled guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of engaging in illegal monetary transactions, according to FBI reports.
Leroy Nelson Indictment by Tristan Hallman
Follow Kristin Tate on Twitter @KristinBTate
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