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In an indictment issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, Leroy Nelson could very well be in BIG Texas style TROUBLE. Nelson, from Duncanville, allegedly had this “thaing goin’ on that done took multy mill-yuns of doll-uhs from fine Texas insurers.”
Actually, the indictment spells out, quite eloquently and without the mincing of words, that Nelson and others schemed to defraud many carriers via fictitious auto accidents. Recruited individuals, promised cash for their participation, were instructed to call their insurance company and report bogus accidents.
Following a script provided by Nelson, the recruits would report that they’d damaged a piece of equipment on the road or hit something being hauled by a trailer. None of the damaged items were simple — no running over a guy’s bicycle — nope, the Nelson scripts used words like “Remote Aircraft Landing Marker,” a “chemical Pipeline Examiner” or a “Seismographic Probe.” Of course none of it was cheap; repair estimates ranged in the high teen-thousands and checks were mailed to Nelson-controlled addresses in Texas, Minnesota, Missouri, Washington, Arizona, Connecticut and Louisiana. Most were rented mailboxes with forwarding orders — straight to Nelson’s house.
The BIG part of the big trouble is the potential sentence if/when Nelson is convicted. Each of the mail fraud counts could result in a 20-year sentence and a $250,000 fine (there were many) and each of the illegal monetary transaction counts (ditto) could add ten years and another $250,000. Which is going to be tough to pay after the ordered forfeiture of the “spoils of fraud:” a house, two Mercedes, five other cars, a motor home and a boat.
The investigation was a combined effort of the FBI, the IRS-CID and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.