Las Vegas men plead guilty in staged car crash scheme

Two Las Vegas men pleaded guilty Wednesday in Washington to federal conspiracy charges for their role in a scheme to defraud insurance companies through staged car crashes.

Matthew Carter pleaded guilty to four counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Eastern Washington. Jason Westfall pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Carter and Westfall were involved in staged crashes that happened in Las Vegas, but the case is being prosecuted in Washington, where seven other people pleaded guilty Wednesday to their involvement in the scheme.

None of the other defendants were from Las Vegas, but some of the crashes they were linked to happened in Nevada, court records show.

Eleven other people also have been indicted in connection with the scheme.

The staged crashes typically involved a no-fault vehicle and an at-fault vehicle. Prior to the wrecks, a co-conspirator would purposefully inflict injuries on others to “mislead responders and insurance companies,” court records show.

Involved parties also urinated in a bottle, then poured the urine on their clothing “to create the false and misleading impression that a co-conspirator suffered a loss of consciousness,” according to the records.

Carter was involved in two staged crashes, which happened on June 17, 2015, and November 27, 2017, court records show.

The planned 2015 crash happened at East Post Road and Annie Oakley Drive in the southeast valley while Carter was driving. The scheme yielded about $286,495, which was split among co-conspirators.

Carter was not driving during the planned 2017 crash, which happened at South Buffalo Drive and West Ford Avenue in the southwest valley. But one of the involved vehicles was registered to him.

That scheme yielded about $280,016. After the fraudulently earned payouts from both crashes were split among co-conspirators, Carter took in a total of about $50,500, court records show.

Westfall was involved in one staged crash on Sept. 28, 2014. It happened at Volunteer Boulevard and Gillespie Street in the far south valley, court records show.

The scheme yielded about $275,607, but Westfall received none of the money. One of the involved vehicles belonged to him, though, and he knew about the fraudulent insurance claims, according to his plea agreement.

Both men are scheduled to be sentenced June 10.

Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3801. Follow @rachelacrosby on Twitter.