A man in Minnesota was federally charged with fraud on Tuesday after he vandalized his own home, falsely claimed he’d been targeted for being a Trump supporter and then tried to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance for what he called an “Arson Hate Crime.”
According to the indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, 29-year-old Denis Vladmirovich Molla of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota set fire to his camper that was parked on his residence and spray painted “Biden 2020,” “BLM” (the acronym for Black Lives Matter) and an Antifa symbol on his garage door on Sept. 23, 2020.
Molla falsely told the police that “three unknown males were near his home when he heard an explosion” and saw that the camper had been set on fire “because,” he claimed, “it had a Trump 2020 flag displayed on it,” the indictment said.
“In reality, as Molla well knew, Molla started his own property on fire, Molla spray-painted the graffiti on his own property and there were no unknown males near his home,” the prosecutors alleged in the indictment.
Afterwards, Molla allegedly made a $300,000 claim to an insurance company identified in the indictment as “Victim Insurance Company A” to cover the damage to his garage, camper, vehicles and residence caused by the fire.
The indictment paints a picture of an alleged fraudster who was mighty confident about his scheme: When the insurance company denied some of his claims, not only did Molla allegedly file written complaints to the company accusing it of defrauding him, he also allegedly threatened to report the company to the Department of Commerce and the attorney general.
Molla ultimately collected about $61,000 from the insurance company, according to prosecutors.
Additionally, Molla allegedly solicited donations via two GoFundMe accounts he created to help pay for the damages caused by the so-called “hate crime.” He then allegedly deposited $17,135.94 from GoFundMe into his personal Wells-Fargo bank account in November 2020, the indictment said.
On Wednesday, the Brooklyn Center Police Department posted on Facebook a photo of the fire damage from the allegedly fake arson with its announcement of Molla’s indictment:
One of the GoFundMe accounts for Molla’s fake hate crime is still up, and it includes a photo of the graffiti Molla allegedly sprayed on his own garage:
Molla has been charged with two counts of wire fraud.
Read the indictment below:
