A cash-strapped businessman torches hishome, then massacres five people to keep witnesses from testifying.A cop shoots himself to steal workers' comp money. Two scammersstuff a coffin with a mannequin and cow parts to invent a deadperson for a million-dollar life-insurance payout.

These are among the extreme schemers elected to the InsuranceFraud Hall of Shame sponsored by the Coalition Against InsuranceFraud.

The Hall of Shame annually “dishonors” the year's most brazen,vicious or klutzy convicted insurance criminals as a way to brandinsurance fraud as a socially offensive act by detailing true-lifecases and the damage they cause.

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Executed scheme. Dogged by debt, William CraigMiller burned down his fancy Scarsdale, Ariz. house for aninsurance payday. Miller then executed two witnesses in their home.He also gunned down three kids in the home to keep them quiet. Somewere shot at point blank, including a 10-year-old boy. Millerreceived the death penalty.

Daffy diamond heist.Financially strapped diamond merchants Atul Shah & HaveerKankariya staged a dopey $9-million diamond heist for insurancemoney. They hired two thugs to dress as Hasidic Jews in beards andblack-brimmed hats, then pretend to rob their Manhattan business.But the merchants' own security cameras recorded them removing thediamonds themselves. The merchants both received up to 4 years inprison.

Policing fraud. Los Angeles cop Jeff Stenroossaid a man shot him in his protective vest. Hundreds ofpolice were diverted to hunt for the phantom shooter. Thousands ofkids were locked in their schools for hours without food, water ortoilets. Traffic was snarled. Stenroos had faked a painful injuryto score paid time off via his workers comp policy. He received 4years in jail.

Explosive con. Stuck with a decaying home theycouldn't sell Victor & Olga Barriere hired Thomas Trucios toburn down the Long Beach, Calif. place. But Trucios was an amateurwho used too much gasoline. The toxic brew exploded. Flamesengulfed Trucios, blew up the house and carved large cracks in thesidewalk. Trucios died from third-degree burns. Victor received 14years and Olga 6 years.

Stormy scheme. Lori Sergiacomi was a popularProvidence, R.I. deejay called “Tanya Cruise.” She had two corruptpoliticos bang up her home roof, pool and interior to look likestorm damage so insurance would pay for the remodeling. A crookedadjuster helped grease the claim. But just her luck, one politicospilled the entire scheme while being wiretapped in yet anothercorruption con. Sergiacomi received 4 months in a halfway house.Her cronies received varied sentences.

Cow parts & mannequins. Jean Crump and FayeShilling took out life insurance on Jim Davis, a fake person theyinvented. When the fictional “Davis” later died of a heart attack,the Los Angeles duo staged his funeral, with fake mourners and aburial. Then they dug up the empty coffin when the life insurer gotnosey. They filled it with a mannequin and cow parts to foolworkers lugging the box to the crematorium to erase the evidence.Crump awaits sentencing, and Shilling received 2 years in federalprison.

Bad medicine. Armen Karazianis headed anArmenian-American gang that bilked Medicare out of $163 million inone of the largest Medicare scams ever perpetrated by a singlecriminal gang. The Los Angeles-area man set up 118 fake medicalclinics in 25 states and stole the identities of doctors andMedicare beneficiaries. Karazianis also recruited Medicare patientsfor bogus treatments and staged crashes for false injury claims.Karazianis received 3 years in federal prison.

Blind to honesty. Kevin Pushia was a Baltimorepastor who “befriended” a blind, developmentally disabled man namedLemuel Wallace. Pushia secretly took out $1.4 million of lifeinsurance on Wallace, then stole $50,000 from his church to payhitmen to have Wallace shot in a park bathroom. He also tellinglyscrawled “L.W. project completed” in his datebook. Pushia earnedlife in prison.

Fake FBI agent. Chicagoan Bridget Buckner toldher employer that her child and husband died suddenly just monthsapart. Her husband was an FBI agent shot in his lung while on duty,and the poor guy died awaiting surgery, she said. Shecollected $25,000 in life coverage. But the fraud investigatorhimself was a retired FBI agent who would've heard about the death.Buckner's innocent hubby wasn't an agent, and her daughter had diedseveral years prior. A spooked Buckner disappeared but was hauledback for a 10-year jail term.