Yuma contractor convicted of Insurance fraud

A federal jury found a 40-year-old Yuma man guilty last week of 15 charges related to several insurance fraud schemes he perpetrated between 2018 and 2020.

Isrrael Millan III has now been convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit fraud, eight counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud and four counts of money laundering.

Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 21, 2023, before Senior United States District Judge Roslyn O. Silver.

Millan's schemes, all of which he committed in Yuma, included staging vehicle accidents and deliberately flooding homes then submitting fraudulent claims to insurance companies related to the incidents.

One of the incidents occurred in the early morning of June 2, 2019, when two individuals recruited by Millan purposefully crashed a U-Haul moving truck into the Sunshine Market and Liquor Convenience Store.

The evidence at his trial revealed that Millan worked as a general contractor and made fraudulent claims to the damage caused by the incidents in an effort to collect money from insurance companies.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation in this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Raymond K. Woo and Aron Ketchel, District of Arizona, Phoenix, handled the prosecution.