A Minnesota Trump supporter who faked an Antifa attack and filed $300,000 in claims has pled guilty to the staged arson.
Denis Vladmirovich Molla, 30, was charged in July for falsely reporting that Antifa members had lit his camper on fire and spray painted “Biden 2020” and “BLM” graffiti on it, court documents show. He gained widespread sympathy for the supposed attack on September 2020 and raised $17,000 in donations from the community.
An investigation by the FBI and the Brooklyn Center Police Department found that Molla planned the fire and then submitted more than $300,000 in fraudulent insurance claims, the DoJ said. When he received $61,000, Molla claimed that the insurance company was defrauding him and threatened to report it to the Department of Commerce.
Speaking to Fox News after the staged fire in 2020, Molla claimed his family had woken up around 3am to the explosion and ran to protect their children, then two years old and five months old, from the fire. The family also told police they believed they had been targetted for displaying Trump flags in the backyard.
“We live in the greatest country in the world and the greatest thing about America is we have the right to say what we want to say and not be attacked for it, and that’s totally been violated,” Molla’s wife, Deana Molla, told the station at the time.
When he was interviewed by Fox News back in 2020, Molla said: “If it’s really because of the flag, I wouldn’t have gotten it. I don’t want to deal with this at all.”
Per the DoJ, Molla submitted a complaint to the insurance company when it rejected some of his claims.
“Molla also created and allowed others to create two GoFundMe accounts to benefit Molla and his family. In total, Molla submitted more than $300,000 in fraudulent insurance claims, and he received approximately $61,000 from his insurance company. Molla also received more than $17,000 from individual donors via GoFundMe,” a statement by the DoJ stated.
Brooklyn Center Fire Chief told WCCO after charges were filed against Molla in August that “things didn’t add up in the case.”
“[He] put all my staff at risk,” Chief Todd Berg told the outlet, adding that 16 firefighters had responded to the fire in 2020. “As well as other people.”
Neighbours also told WCCO that they were afraid their own homes would catch fire.
Molla was initially charged with two counts of wire fraud but only pled guilty to one after entering an agreement with the prosecution. He will be sentenced at a later date and the DoJ is yet to announce when that will be.
