Man accused of faking anti-Trump attack for insurance, GoFundMe money, prosecutor says
A Minnesota man is charged with financial fraud after the FBI and Minnesota police accused him of faking an anti-Trump arson attack.
Denis Molla, 29, of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, claimed that three men set his camper on fire and spray-painted “Biden 2020,” “BLM” and an Antifa sign graffiti on his garage door on Sept. 23, 2020, court documents said.
Molla claimed his camper was targeted because of the Trump 2020 flag on it, court records said.
But Molla faked the alleged ordeal by spray-painting and setting fire to his property himself, prosecutors said in the indictment filed July 7.
Molla is charged with fraud following an investigation by the FBI and Brooklyn Center Police Department, the Department of Justice said in a news release.
After reporting the incident, Molla filed $300,000-worth of insurance claims for the fire damage “to his garage, camper, vehicles, and residence,” the news release said.
His insurance company initially denied the claims, but he later received $61,000, court documents said.
According to the release, Molla also created and allowed others to create two GoFundMe pages for him and his family, eventually depositing the donated funds to his bank account.
Both pages — one titled “Help a hurting family” and another titled “Molla Family Arson Fundraiser, Hate Crime” — have been taken down.
The “Molla Family Arson Fundraiser, Hate Crime” had raised $17,836 from 220 donors by January 2021, an archived version showed.
The “Help a hurting family” GoFundMe page had received $4,345 in donations by April 2021, according to an archived version.
One of the the archived GoFundMe pages described Molla as a “target for his patriotic support of our president (Donald Trump).”
In court documents, prosecutors claimed that Molla had received more than $17,000 from GoFundMe.
A GoFundMe spokesperson told McClatchy News that Molla’s fundraisers were removed and Molla was banned from being a beneficiary on the platform. According to the spokesperson, “if a misuse of funds takes place on GoFundMe, our team works with law enforcement to assist them with any investigation they deem necessary.”
NBC News reported that Molla pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on July 12 and was released on bond.
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