Denis Vladmirovich Molla, the Minnesota man accused of setting his own camper on fire and blaming Black Lives Matter and Antifa for the damage, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison after he admitted to the offense.
According to CBS, the convicted man filed multiple insurance claims after he deliberately vandalized his property on September 23, 2020. His conviction also came after he entered a guilty plea last October.
Molla, an alleged Trump supporter, made the news after he claimed someone set his camper on fire “because it had a Trump 2020 flag displayed on it.” “This kind of stuff should not happen, especially over beliefs of some sort,” he told WCCO following the incident.
However, it was later established that Molla rather did the damage to his property. He also spray painted “BLM” and “Biden 2020” on his garage door, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Besides being paid $61,000 after submitting more than $300,000 in insurance claims, Molla also received over $17,000 from two GoFundMe accounts. He has since been ordered to pay $3,850 in restitution and also more than $18,000 as a fine.
“Molla submitted multiple insurance claims seeking coverage for the damage to his garage, camper, vehicles, and residence caused by the fire. When Molla’s insurance company denied some of those claims, Molla submitted a written complaint to the insurance company claiming that it was defrauding him and threatened to report the company to the Department of Commerce and to the Attorney General,” The Department of Justice said in a statement after the alleged Trump supporter entered the guilty plea.
“Mr. Molla was obviously remorseful during his federal plea hearing today,” his attorney told CNN after he entered the guilty plea. “It’s easy for the general public to look down on him, without knowing what was going on in his life, and cast immediate judgement. Mr. Molla is a wonderful husband and father who made a mistake that he sincerely regrets. Unlike many others, he has accepted full responsibility for his actions and is sorry for what happened.”
