NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A federal witness testified Wednesday that injury attorney Jason Giles paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars to stage car crashes into 18-wheelers around New Orleans as part of an alleged years-long insurance fraud scheme.
Damian Labeaud, described by prosecutors as a so-called “slammer,” told the court he would intentionally crash into commercial vehicles and bring the resulting cases to Giles and others in exchange for kickbacks.
“I got involved with it just to make money,” Labeaud testified Thursday. “It was easier than selling drugs, less risky, less problems for me. It was just easy.”
Deal allegedly struck when Giles switched jobs
Labeaud testified he first met Giles about 15 years ago while Giles worked at another law firm. He said the two made a deal when Giles moved on to the King Firm. Labeaud said they decided Giles would pay Labeaud $1,000 per passenger per crash for staging wrecks involving 18-wheelers…