Insurance Fraudster Receives Additional Prison Time

U.S. Attorney’s Office
Western District of Wisconsin
17 April 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Madison, Wis. - John W. Vaudreuil, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that John Henricks III, 44, Amherst, Wis., (formerly of Rhinelander, Wis.), was resentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb to 151 months in federal prison for insurance fraud involving the United States mail. Henricks was originally sentenced to 121 months in prison for this crime on January 9, 2014.

At the original sentencing hearing, Judge Crabb found that Henricks had used his prior business, Custom Collision, of Rhinelander, to defraud 19 auto insurance companies by staging accidents and creating false work invoices. Judge Crabb directed Henricks to pay $1,306,608.72 in restitution.

After an evidentiary hearing yesterday, Judge Crabb found that Henricks had willfully failed to make even minimal efforts to pay restitution to his victims. Instead, Judge Crabb found Henricks directed money and other assets to his and his family’s benefit and attempted to protect marital assets from collection through a sham divorce.

United States Attorney Vaudreuil stated, “The hard work of the U.S. Attorney’s Office to recover the losses of crime victims does not stop at sentencing. On the contrary, our Financial Litigation Unit leaves no stone unturned in identifying assets and collecting on behalf of victims. Defendants like Henricks who try to cheat the victims a second time by hiding and transferring assets after conviction face steeply higher penalties.”

Vaudreuil thanked the Oneida County Sheriff’s Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their efforts in the investigation of Henricks. The prosecution of the case has been handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Heidi Luehring and Timothy M. O’Shea.