William Mize, a notorious insurance fraudster, was sentenced to 144 months in prison and was ordered to pay more than $7.09 million in restitution to insurance carriers and to the Internal Revenue Service.
From 2013 to 2018, Mize and his crew staged fake automobile, boat and in-home accidents to receive benefits from insurance carriers, according to the US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Washington. The scheme netted the group more than $6 million, with Mize receiving majority of the money.
A federal grand jury indicted Maze in 2018.
“The elaborate fraud schemes that William Mize orchestrated not only caused financial injury to various insurance companies, but these crimes add to the cost for responsible citizens to have insurance,” said Craig Thayer, U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Washington.
Mize, who pleaded guilty to his crimes in August, was ordered to pay more than $6.7 million in restitution to insurance carriers. He will also face three years of supervised release after serving his prison term.
“For many years, Mr. Mize recruited, directed and elaborately staged automobile and boat collisions as well as other injury accidents to fraudulently obtain millions of dollars,” said U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref. “Not only did this scheme cause serious physical harm to his co-conspirators, including his wife and children, but it placed the community in significant danger.”
In addition to insurance fraud, Mize was found guilty of evading his tax liabilities by more than $400,000. The court ordered Mize to pay the IRS $436,399 in restitution.
Mize was first arrested in 2019 but escaped while awaiting trial. He was arrested again in November 2023 in Jacksonville, Fla., while attempting to sell a yacht that he had reportedly been living on.
Following his arrest, Mize was extradited to Washington to face the multiple fraud cases he committed. Ron Wells, Mize’s co-conspirator in the scheme, was reportedly previously sentenced to one year of home confinement.