The ringleader behind a massive fraud scheme involving staged accidents and fabricated insurance claims, including one high-profile incident in which a prominent Spokane developer participated, has been sentenced in federal court in Spokane to 12 years in prison.

The ringleader, William O. Mize, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice to return $6.7 million in restitution to insurance companies, pay $436,300 in back taxes to the IRS, and serve three years of supervised release following his incarceration.

Spokane historic preservation advocate and developer Ron Wells conspired in one scheme led by Mize and was sentenced in 2020 to a year of home confinement, three years of probation, and nearly $240,000 in fines and restitution. Wells died in February.

Mize was on the lam at the time of the Wells’ sentencing and was apprehended by federal authorities late last year in Jacksonville, Florida, where he was living under a fake name on a yacht that he was trying to sell, according to a press release from the office of Spokane-based U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref.