Spokane fraud suspect William Mize arrested in Florida after four years on the run

SPOKANE — The alleged mastermind behind a multimillion-dollar fraud ring out of Spokane was arrested in Florida Tuesday after more than four years on the run, U.S. Marshals said.

Marshals received a tip about William Mize that led to his arrest at a marina in Jacksonville, Florida, Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Gavin Duffy said in a news release.

Mize was “known to have access to large sums of money and knowledge of creating and using false identities,” the release said.

He faces federal charges connected to an insurance fraud ring involving staged accidents throughout the West, and had been considered a fugitive since August 2019. Spokane developer Ron Wells was indicted as a co-conspirator and sentenced to a year of home confinement.

“William Mize was a fugitive who thought that because he had financial means, he could avoid apprehension and flout the rule of law,” Craig Thayer, U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Washington, said in the release. “As evidenced, this is clearly not the case. No matter the resources they have or where they run to, the U.S. Marshals will never stop in the pursuit of a fugitive until they have been brought to justice.”

Mize will be extradited to Washington.