Ohio Woman Sentenced to Prison for Insurance Claim Fraud

CLEVELAND – Angela Frase, 60, of Sterling, Ohio, has been sentenced to 24 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster after pleading guilty to four counts of mail fraud for accepting insurance checks after she knowingly submitted false claims. Frase was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $327,072.

Frase pleaded guilty to devising a scheme that took place from July 2 to Aug. 23, 2019, to defraud a homeowner’s insurance company. According to court documents, the scheme began when Frase called fire emergency services on July 2, 2019, and again on July 3, 2019, to report a fire in her home. Fire marshals were unable to determine the cause of the fire at the time. The insurance company then housed Frase and her husband at an extended stay hotel. An investigation later conducted by insurance company experts determined no evidence of electrical failure as the cause of the fire.

On the morning of Aug. 6, 2019, the fire department responded to a natural gas leak at the Frase residence. Home remodeling employees entered the home to work on the damage caused by the fire but were forced to evacuate due to the strong smell of natural gas. The fire marshal later determined that the stove was turned on, filling the residence with explosive-causing levels of natural gas. Frase and her husband were the last people in the home prior to the discovery of gas and claimed to have locked the doors. There was no sign of forced entry.

On Aug. 6, 2019, at approximately 10:43 p.m., Frase left her extended stay hotel room, drove to her home on Spruce Street in Seville, Ohio, and started a fire. Investigators later learned through her cellphone location data that she remained in the area of her home from 10:54 p.m. until 11:39 p.m. and then returned to her hotel room. On Aug. 7, 2019, at approximately 12:36 a.m., the Sterling Fire Department and Wayne County Sheriff’s Office responded to the home in reference to a fire and explosion. The Ohio State Fire Marshal later determined the cause of the fire was incendiary in nature. In addition to starting the fire, Frase spray-painted what appeared to be racial disparities on her own garage and vandalized her neighbor’s vehicle.

On Aug. 11, 2019, between 9:30 and 10 p.m., Frase returned to her home and again spray-painted hate speech on her own garage. When a sheriff’s deputy responded and discovered the words, Frase told the deputy that she saw two suspicious individuals running through the field behind her property. Three days later, on Aug. 14, Frase called authorities again after she placed a stuffed doll painted black with a noose tied around its neck in her own mailbox. On Aug. 23, she once again contacted law enforcement to report that she found an envelope at her residence while walking around the property that had a racial slur written on it and inside was a plastic bag filled with an unknown white substance and the word “die.”

From Nov. 1, 2019 to June 17, 2020, the insurance company mailed four checks to Frase for property losses and damages which she accepted. She was later charged with four counts of mail fraud for attempting to swindle money from the homeowner’s insurance company through intentionally deceptive actions.

This case was investigated by the FBI Cleveland Division, Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, and Ohio’s Division of State Fire Marshal. Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Zarzycki for the Northern District of Ohio prosecuted the case.