Insurance fraud case kingpin pleads guilty after years as a fugitive

SPOKANE — The 63-year-old man at the center of a large federal fraud case pleaded guilty to staging car accidents to get insurance money, not declaring that income on his tax returns and eluding prosecution for years.

William Oldham Mize IV pleaded guilty in front of Eastern District of Washington District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice.

Mize was the ringleader in the federal insurance fraud conspiracy case that involved 22 other defendants, including the late developer Ron Wells.

“It started by myself, and then it kind of grew,” Mize said in court.

In 2019, Mize was listed as a fugitive after failing to appear in court. He had 18 aliases, according to court documents. He was caught at a marina in Jacksonville, Florida, in November after four years on the run.

Running was “pure panic,” Mize said.

“I just panicked, and I didn’t show up to the hearing,” he said.

The plea agreement indicates Mize will likely face 12 years in prison and have to pay over $2 million in restitution.

“Mr. Mize attempted, but ultimately failed, to avoid the consequences of his fraudulent and dangerous schemes. Over the course of several years, Mr. Mize defrauded insurance companies out of millions of dollars by staging fake accidents that caused real, physical harm to his co-conspirators and others,” U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref wrote in a statement. “These schemes greatly increase insurance premiums and costs for everyone, making it more expensive for ordinary Americans to own a car and to have reliable transportation for themselves and their families.”

Mize and his wife, Sandra Talento, were described as central figures in the scheme in which they staged a series of automobile, boating, stair fall, pedestrian, vehicle and other accidents in Washington, Idaho, Nevada and California from 2013 to 2018, according to court documents.

The fraud totaled more than $6 million, mostly kept by Mize, court documents allege.

Talento pleaded guilty to 25 felony counts and was sentenced to nearly six years in prison. The other 20 defendants all also pleaded guilty, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Mize pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, failure to appear and tax fraud.

His sentencing is set for Nov. 6.