New Orleans attorneys accused of staging vehicle accidents in fraud scheme

Eight people and two law firms have been charged in what authorities say was more than a decade-long scheme of staging vehicle crashes in the New Orleans area and then submitting fraudulent insurance claims, leading to what prosecutors allege was the murder of one person to cover it up.

The 10-count indictment, unsealed on Monday in the Eastern District of Louisiana, said the law firms Motta Law, LLC, and The King Firm, LLC, both of New Orleans, along with eight people, including attorneys, have been charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, with some charged with additional counts.

The new indictment brings the total number of defendants charged to 63 in the federal probe into allegations of staged auto collisions, which authorities dubbed “Operation Sideswipe.”

Ryan J. Harris, 36, of New Orleans, has also been charged with witness tampering through murder, retaliation against a witness through murder and causing death through the use of a firearm. If convicted of any of those crimes, Harris would face a mandatory life sentence and up to a $250,000 fine for each count.

The complex system, beginning in 2011, involved people allegedly crashing vehicles into 18-wheelers and then fleeing while passengers in those vehicles pretended to be the drivers and lying about what happened. Authorities say those persons staged witnesses on site claiming it was the commercial vehicle’s fault, according to officials. Monday's indictment alleges 22 collisions were staged by the defendants in the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Harris, who officials say was one of the people who crashed the vehicles, allegedly killed Cornelius Garrison in 2020, four days after Garrison was indicted for offenses related to the crashes. It was “part of a scheme to prevent Garrison from cooperating with the federal government and exposing the scheme to stage collisions,” according to officials. Garrison had been secretly working with the federal government since 2019 in connection with the scheme.

Sean Toomey, a lawyer representing Vanessa Motta, who was charged along with her law firm Motta Law, maintains his client's innocence

“The government’s theory – that a lawyer barely a year out of law school decided to participate in a sprawling conspiracy – is terribly mistaken,” he said in a statement. "If these accidents were in fact staged, my client was also a victim and taken advantage by others."

Officials claim that Motta was part of the effort to pursue fraudulent claims and lawsuits.

The King Firm, LLC, and Harris' lawyer did not immediately respond to emails and phone calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The mail and wire fraud charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years imprisonment and up to a $250,000 fine or “twice the gross gain to any defendant or twice the gross loss to any victim.”