An Ohio couple have been sentenced for devising a scheme to collect more than $2 million do
llars in insurance money by conspiring to set insured houses on fire, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Ohio announced this week.
Lonnie White, 48, from Willoughby Hills, Ohio, was sentenced to 53 months in prison by Chi
ef U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi after pleading guilty in August to the following charges as outlined in the indictment:
Conspiracy to Commit Mail and Wire Fraud
Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering Offenses
Conspiracy to use Fire in
Commission of a Felony
He was also sentenced to three
years of supervised release and ordered to pay $2,375,861 in restitution. Chief Judge Lioi imposed the sentence Jan. 23.
White’s spouse, Lisa Ogletree, 48, was sentenced to five years of probation and 810 da
ys of location-monitored home confinement after she pleaded guilty last August to Conspiracy to Commit Mail and Wire Fraud. Chief Judge Lioi imposed the sentence Jan. 28.
“It’s traumatic for people to see a house in their neighborhood go up in flames, and these defendants shamelessly utilized devastating fires just to line their pocket
s with money,” said United States Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio.
According to the indictment, White and Ogletree, either personally or through others, bought houses on the east side of Cleveland, transferred the prope
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rties to nominal owners with fake renters, insured the property for hundreds of thou
sands of dollars, arranged to set the house on fire, and submitted fraudulent ins
urance claims on the destroyed property. White arranged to intentionally set these houses ablaze to make them appear as if the fires were accidental.
After receiving the insurance payments for the fire damage, nominal owners distributed the funds to White and Ogletree, who then transferred the money
to other bank accounts for their own benefit and to further their scheme. According to court filings
, the scheme involved at least six fires and more than $2.3 million in fraudulent claims from 2013 to 2019.
The investigation leading to the indictment was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Cleveland Field Office.