June 30--An Evansville man was sentenced in federal court Thursday for leading an insurance fraud scheme, paying people to stage car crashes and racking up losses of more than $1.4 million to hospitals and insurance companies.
Michael Burris Sr., 57, appeared in U.S. District Court where Judge Richard L. Young sentenced him to 115 months -- more than nine years -- in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud.
The sentence was at the high end of what federal sentencing guidelines recommended.
Burris grew up in a dysfunctional household with an abusive, alcoholic father on what his attorney described as the "other side of the tracks."
It was a world where people live on the socioeconomic edge, said attorney James McKinley, and its inhabitants were the people he recruited to help pull off his scheme.
He did so, McKinley said, partly out of a desire to help them when they came to him with their troubles.
"I'm not going to say this was some misguided, valiant attempt to rob from the rich and give to the poor, and I think it doesn't effect the seriousness, but it kind of explains what was in his brain," McKinley said.
But federal prosecutors painted a different picture.
Over a six-year period from 2008 to 2014, Burris and his family recruited people to help stage car crashes, file false police reports and submit false insurance claims for faked or self-inflicted injuries.
Injuries were often faked by punching those involved in the face, cutting them with razor blades, hitting them with a wooden pole or wire brush, prosecutors said.
Burris was among 36 people indicted on federal charges after a two-year investigation into what Josh Minkler, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, called the largest white collar crime investigation in Evansville's recent history.
Although the proceeds were split among participants, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Sawa said Burris took at least half of every payout first.
"Yes, they did love him for it but he brought them in for his own benefit. There was always a favor down the road. There's always a get-rich-quick scheme down the road," Sawa said. "I don't really see the Robin Hood comparison. (It's) more like the Pied Piper. He leads them down a criminal path. He uses them at his will."
Burris' own criminal history, described in court Thursday, began as a juvenile. As an adult, Burris has been convicted of assault; battery; theft; carrying a handgun without a license; corrupt business influence; and check fraud.
Among the activities that led to those charges was a scheme in which he was convicted of using juveniles to buy goods from Walmart using a fraudulent checking account and then returning them for cash.
In 1996, Young -- who was then Vanderburgh Circuit Court judge -- sentenced Burris to eight years for a nearly identical insurance fraud scheme as the one leading to Thursday's sentencing.
"You remember that don't you?" Young said. "Obviously my sentence 20 years ago didn't have much impact on you. Usually when a judge sentences someone to prison, a judge hopes it has a deterrent effect. That didn't happen here."
In sentencing Burris on Thursday, Young said he had no confidence that Burris would not offend again after release.
Indicted for participating in the scheme along with Burris were his wife, Linda K. Burris, and three of their sons, Michael W. Burris, Jr., Justin A. Burris and David B. Smitha.
Officials said the family recruited people to crash vehicles in a remote area -- into a tree or other fixed object -- causing significant damage. After the crash, the driver would then leave the scene while other recruited participants waiting nearby entered the vehicle and waited for emergency personnel to respond.
Vehicles were often loaded with three or four people after the staged crash to maximize insurance claims.
Crashes that were allegedly part of the scheme occurred in Vanderburgh County -- both in and outside of the city limits of Evansville -- Warrick County and Henderson County, Kentucky, according the federal prosecutors.
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