Two New Orleans personal injury attorneys were found guilty last week of running a scheme to defraud insurance companies by staging fraudulent accidents.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Vanessa Motta and Jason Giles were found guilty of all charges pending against them, following a three-week jury trial presided over by Chief U.S. District Judge Wendy B. Vitter.
The jury also convicted law firms Motta Law LLC and The King Firm LLC and co-conspirator Diamanike Stalbert.
The jury found Motta, Motta Law, Giles and The King Firm guilty of all counts against them, and Stalbert was found guilty of making false statements to federal agents.
According to court documents, the defendants participated in a long-running scheme to defraud insurance companies and commercial trucking companies by staging and litigating fraudulent automobile collisions to collect insurance company payouts.
That scheme began approximately in December 2011 and continued until December 2024, and it involved New Orleans area personal injury attorneys (including Motta, Motta Law, Giles, and The King Firm) paying “slammers” to recruit passengers to participate in purposeful collisions with automobiles, especially 18-wheeler trucks with large commercial insurance policies.
The attorneys would then litigate those cases on behalf of the passengers, often encouraging those passengers to seek medically unnecessary neck and back surgeries to incur medical costs and increase the size of future insurance company settlements. Along with slammers, attorneys, and passengers, the scheme also included “spotters,” who drove getaway cars for the slammers, and “recruiters” like Stalbert, who facilitated numerous staged collisions by bringing new passengers into the scheme.
The jury also found Motta and Motta Lawguilty of obstruction of justice and witness tampering relating to an effort to pay a witness to move to the Bahamas to impede any cooperation with federal authorities.
The jury likewise found Giles and The King Firmguilty of obstruction of justice and witness tampering for secretly recording a charged individual in October 2020 in an effort to manufacture exculpatory evidence. Stalbert was acquitted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
“This trial shows how systemic insurance fraud can be, involving all types of bad actors, from attorneys and medical providers to criminals willing to cause accidents on Louisiana roads,” Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple said. “These schemes are not only dangerous—they also drive up the cost of insurance for all drivers. I am committed to working with our law enforcement partners to stop criminals like these and make Louisiana a national leader in the fight against insurance fraud.”
Chief U.S. District Judge Wendy B. Vitter will sentence the defendants Motta and Motta Law onJuly 7, 2026, Giles and The King Firm on July 14, 2026, and Stalbert on July 21, 2026.
The maximum penalty for mail fraud, mail and wire fraud conspiracy, and witness tampering is twenty years imprisonment, up to three years of supervised release, and up to a $250,000 fine or twice the gross gain to any defendant or twice the gross loss to any victim.
The maximum penalty for obstruction of justice is ten years imprisonment, up to three years of supervised release, and up to a $250,000 fine or twice the gross gain to any defendant or twice the gross loss to any victim. The maximum penalty for making false statements to a federal agent is up to five years of imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and up to three years of supervised release.
The Court may also impose restitution. Additionally, each defendant also faces payment of a $100 mandatory special assessment fee per count of conviction.
Including this jury trial, 64 defendants have been charged in the federal probe into the staging of automobile collisions with other vehicles in the New Orleans metropolitan area.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Louisiana
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