Date: Dec. 5, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Spokane, WA — On December 5, 2024, United States District Judge Thomas O. Rice sentenced William Oldham Mize to 144 months in federal prison in connection to a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme involving false and fabricated insurance claims. Judge Rice also imposed 3 years of supervised release and $6,657,209.00 in restitution to insurance companies and $436,399 in restitution to the IRS. According to court documents and information presented at the sentencing hearing, Mize was the ringleader of a massive insurance fraud scheme to intentionally cause automobile and boat collisions as well as staged home “accidents” in order to file false and fraudulent insurance claims and collect the proceeds. According to court documents, the scheme took place between 2013 and 2018, involved numerous staged collisions in Washington and Nevada, and obtained more than $6 million, most of which was kept by Mize. The United States seized and forfeited more than $2 million in assets – including numerous houses, cars, boats, and cash – from Mize and his co-conspirators and has returned that money to the victims of his crime. Mize originally appeared in federal court on his indictment on January 9, 2019. Following his initial appearance, he was released pending trial. In July 2019, Mize fled from supervision and became a fugitive, living under a number of false identities. On November 28, 2023, the U.S. Marshals apprehended Mize in Jacksonville, Florida based on a lead that Mize, using a false identity, was attempting to sell a yacht in which was living in the Jacksonville area. Mize was then located and arrested at a marina in central Florida and transported to Eastern Washington, where he has remained in custody. “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. 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. Furthermore, Mr. Mize defrauded the public out of more than $400,000 by cheating on his taxes. When indicted by prosecutors in my office, Mr. Mize fled, to avoid accountability for his crimes,” stated U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref. “I am grateful for the dedication of the U.S. Marshals who located and returned Mr. Mize to the Eastern District and prosecutors and investigators who worked many hours over the years to achieve justice in this case.” “I want to commend and express special thanks for the exceptional investigative work done by the talented agents and investigative professionals with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, and the United States Marshals Service. Their close collaboration and partnership, and their persistence and hard work throughout a complex and lengthy investigation, are what made this result possible. We look forward to continuing to work with our law enforcement partners to strengthen and safeguard Eastern Washington,” said Assistant United States Attorney Dan Fruchter. “Mr. Mize endangered his family and the public for money,” said Adam Jobes, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation Seattle Field Office. “As long as money is a motivation for crime, we will assist our law enforcement partners with investigations like this one.” “Mr. Mize spent years living off the misery he caused.” said Gregory L. Austin, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office. “While he enriched himself, his co-conspirators, which included family members, were left with physical injuries and jail sentences. To make matters worse, rather than answer for his crimes, he became a fugitive for almost five years. I would like to commend our investigators, partners, and specifically the US Marshals Service, who ultimately tracked him down and took him into custody.” “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. It should also not be forgotten that the collisions, and physical injuries to those participating in the schemes, were acts of unconscionable violence and added risk to the public. Mize fled after his original appearance in federal court, which led to a long and protracted fugitive investigation,” said Craig Thayer, United States Marshal for the Eastern District of Washington. “The partnership and teamwork between local, state, and federal agencies including the IRS and FBI was instrumental in the eventual arrest of Mize. Judge Rice has now made Mize accountable with today’s sentence and order for restitution.” The Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), FBI, and U.S. Marshals Service investigated this case. Assistant United States Attorneys Dan Fruchter, Jeremy J. Kelley, and Brian M. Donovan prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States. IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
