Vanessa Motta and Jason Giles were found guilty Friday of numerous charges related to the Louisiana staged accident scam, according to news reports from the federal courthouse in New Orleans.
The jury deliberated about six hours Friday after closing arguments wrapped up at the end of the day Thursday. The case was heard in the U.S. Eastern District of Louisiana.
According to reports from NBC’s New Orleans affiliate WDSU, Motta was found guilty to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud, obstruction of justice and witness tampering. Mail fraud and wire fraud have been the charges that other persons indicted in the case have been charged with and which more than four dozen copped a plea to, avoiding a trial.
Giles was convicted of similar charges as Motta, as was his employer, the King Firm.
The Motta/Giles trial was the only one so far in the scam. Every other indictment is either unresolved (a dwindling number) or is one of more than four dozen guilty pleas.
Their co-conspirator Daiminike Stalbert, was acquitted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. However, he was found guilty of making false statements to federal agents.
At publication time, it was not known whether Motta and Giles would be remanded to custody or released on bond.
The trial began last week. There had been estimates it might take three to four weeks.
But following a parade of witnesses called by federal prosecutors, the defense for the indicted attorneys called no witnesses.
The scam, which prosecutors dubbed Operation Sideswipe, involved cars intentionally striking trucks and other vehicles in an effort to recover insurance payments for injuries real or faked. Testimony at the trial put the start of the scam as early as 2011. Other testimony suggested the number of incidents that were spelled out in the various indictments were just a fraction of the actual crashes that occurred.
A series of tort law changes in Louisiana have been attributed to reaction to the rising toll of insurance premiums that companies faced as a result of the payouts to collisions that ultimately were found to have been staged.
Cornelius Garrison, who had pleaded guilty in the case in 2019, was killed in his home shortly after that plea and his decision to cooperate with federal investigators. The convictions Friday of Motta and Giles were not connected to the Garrison murder, but prosecutors have charged Motta’s romantic partner, disbarred attorney Sean Alfortish, described also as her fiance, in connection with Garrison’s death.
FreightWaves will continue to cover this story as it unfolds.
More articles by John Kingston
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