Three men have been charged with wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud the insurance company of $285,500. A house was purchased for $5,000. At the instruction of the purchaser, another man bought an insurance policy on the property claiming it had been purchased for $50,000 and that coverage should be $285,500 for the dwelling, $142,750 for the contents, and $14,275 for other structures. Less than a month later the men hired two other individuals to burn the house down; each of the hired men was to be paid $500. The home was a total loss and a claim was filed with the insurance company for $285,500. The insurer spent $13,000 investigating the claim before ultimately denying coverage. The two men who arranged the burning of the property are set to be sentenced in January 2023, and each faces a maximum penalty of twenty years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.