Two more people plead guilty in a massive insurance fraud scheme involving people staging car accidents with 18-wheelers in the New Orleans area, in order to make fraudulent claims with the truck’s insurance company.
U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans with the Department of Justice announced Doniesha Gibson, 29, of New Orleans and Erica Thompson, 46, of Harvey entered a guilty plea stemming out of staged automobile accidents with tractor-trailers in New Orleans.
Today’s guilty pleas bring the total number of people convicted in the DOJ’s “Operation Sideswipe” to 22.
According to today’s guilty pleas, Gibson and Thompson, along with their co-conspirators and others, conspired to commit wire fraud in connection with staged accidents as early as 2015 and continuing through 2021.
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The DOJ says Gibson admitted to being a passenger in a staged accident on October 15, 2015. Prosecutors say on that day, her partner intentionally drove a 2014 Dodge Avenger owned by Gibson into a Hotard bus while traveling on the I-10 near the I-510 flyover.
Because of the staged accident, Gibson made an insurance claim for damages and was awarded a settlement totaling $677,500.
Thompson admitted to being part of a staged accident on the I-10 near the Almonaster exit on September 6, 2017, says the DOJ.
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In that incident, prosecutors say she was a passenger in her own 2015 RAV4, driven by the co-defendant when they intentionally crashed into a tractor-trailer owned by Averitt Express.
They say Thompson got a $30,000 settlement from Averitt’s insurance company in that staged crash.
Gibson and Thompson face a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release.