A New Orleans personal injury attorney faces a maximum of five years in prison when sentenced this January for a complicated scheme to stage car accidents with 18-wheelers, and then defraud the trucking company’s insurance company for over $1 million in settlements.
United States Attorney Duane Evans with the Department of Justice announced that Danny Patrick Keating Jr., 52, of New Orleans pleaded guilty on Thursday for his role in the staged accident scheme.
Keating is charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail and Wire Fraud.
Keating is the 33rd person charged in the scheme while 23 other people have also pleaded guilty for their role in staging accidents with 18-wheelers.
According to the DOJ, Keating admitted to conspiring with Damian Labeaud, the ringleader in the scheme, and others to defraud insurance companies, commercial carriers, and trucking companies in a scheme involving intentionally crashing a vehicle into an 18-wheeler, then suing the truck carrier’s insurance company.
How the scheme works
According to U.S. attorney Evans, Labeaud referred staged accidents to Keating and other New Orleans personal injury attorneys for $1,000 per passenger for accidents involving tractor-trailers and $500 per passenger for accidents not involving tractor-trailers.
Keating would advance Labeaud thousands of dollars for these accidents and instructed Labeaud that he owed Keating a certain number of accidents based on the amount of money advanced.
For instance, on July 17, 2017, prosecutors say Keating gave Labeaud $15,000 so Labeaud could purchase a $15,000 Chase Bank cashier’s check to buy a truck for Mario Solomon who used it in a staged accident. Solomon is a co-conspirator who also pleaded guilty in the scheme.
Additionally, on September 25, 2017, Keating wrote a $17,000 check to himself for “advertising” and used the money to purchase a $17,000 cashier’s check payable to Labeaud for his work in the scheme, according to the DOJ.
The indictment alleges Keating also paid Labeaud another $12,500 in checks during the month of June 2017.
The DOJ says Keating admitted he knowingly paid Labeaud for 31 illegally staged tractor-trailer accidents.
Keating represented 77 plaintiffs involved in the 31 accidents staged by Labeaud.
Keating settled 17 of the 31 staged accidents.
The indictment charges Keating and his clients for receiving approximately $1,500,000 in settlements stemming from the scheme. Keating kept approximately $358,000 in attorney’s fees says prosecutors.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Louisiana State Police, and the Metropolitan Crime Commission helped in the “Operation Sideswipe” investigation.
