5 Georgia Women Nabbed in “Ring of Fire”

Why would you buy several mobile homes and then take out insurance policies on them? Well for the insurance money of course.

 According to The Citizen, sheriff’s officials said that five women were arrested on Tuesday morning for their participation in a statewide insurance fraud scheme that involved a unit at the Shiloh Mobile Home Park.

“What it is, is an arson for profit,” Columbus Fire Marshal Rickey Shores said. “It’s being prosecuted as a RICO case.”

The suspects were identified as Deanna Leigh Webster, Ashley Simmons, Tamia Shinay Nicholas and Diana Lukisha Moore of Columbus, and Shantavia Nichole Stewart of Fort Valley. As of late Wednesday night, however, the sixth woman thought to be connected to this investigation –Shameka Eileen Miller of Columbus –still has a warrant out for her arrest. Other arrests are also expected.

 “If you purchase something for a low amount and insure it to the max and then collect on the policy, then you’re defrauding the insurance company,” Shores said.

 According to the Daily News, the mobile home fires began in 2009 and lasted through 2010. Authorities started investigating in August, when Fayette County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Brent Rowan was contacted by the Fayette County Department of Fire and Emergency Services about a suspicious fire.

It was determined that in each incident, there was a similarity in the types of homes, manner of purchase, and the nature of the fire and insurance policies obtained for each location, sheriff’s investigators said.

According to officials, the arrests were made by a group that included Fayette and Muscogee County sheriff’s deputies, the Fort Valley Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Taskforce, and the fire departments from Henry County and Columbus.

Each woman faces one count of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, Rowan said. They face five to 20 years in prison if convicted. The women are scheduled to appear before a judge today.

These are merely allegations as there have been no convictions.  All parties are innocent until proven guilty.