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May 15, 2001

Antrim couple gets jail time for insurance fraud attempt

- They were convicted after their Custer Twp. home burned in 1992
By KEITH MATHENY
Record-Eagle staff writer
 BELLAIRE - An Antrim County couple was sentenced Monday to a year in jail for insurance fraud, following a 1992 fire that destroyed their Custer Township home.
      Benny Justice Bachi and Dawn Elizabeth Bachi, both 35, were each found guilty by a jury in April of conspiracy to commit false pretenses and false pretenses over $100. They had faced up to 10 years in prison.
      Judge Philip Rodgers Jr.'s sentence was structured so that the Bachis' children will not be without both parents at the same time. Dawn Bachi's jail sentence will begin when Benny Bachi is released. Both received five years of probation.
      The Bachis also were ordered to pay $34,500 in restitution to Michigan Millers Insurance Co., related to their false claims of personal items destroyed in the house fire, as well as costs related to the insurance company's investigation.
      The charges stemmed from a fire that destroyed the Bachis' home on Lake of the Woods Road in Custer Township on Dec. 20, 1992.
      The Bachis eventually claimed $213,000 in losses to their home's insurer. Though the insurance company's investigation of the fire determined it was not an accident, the company could not prove any involvement by the couple, and paid them $142,000, Antrim Prosecutor Charles Koop said.
      During a later, unrelated criminal investigation, search warrants were issued on the Bachis' home and business, The Carpet Co. in Elk Rapids. The couple was found to still have several items that they had claimed were destroyed in the fire, including Dawn Bachi's wedding dress.
      At the time both were charged with insurance fraud-related crimes. Benny Bachi also was charged with arson.
      But the prosecutor's office eventually dropped that count, Koop said, citing unrelated problems that arose during the development of the case.
      Rodgers told Benny Bachi Monday that if the allegations that he intentionally set the house fire had been proven, he would have sentenced him to a lengthy prison sentence "in an instant."
      Rodgers chastised Benny Bachi, who did not participate in pre-sentence evaluations or speak on his own behalf prior to sentencing.
      "I've seen nothing from you whatsoever that indicates a flicker of remorse, a modicum of understanding of the significance of the wrong you have committed, or the embarrassment you have caused your family and children," Rodgers said.
      Koop noted prior to sentencing that the day after the couple's conviction, they sold their home to an apparent relative.
      "Clearly it's an attempt to avoid payment of any restitution," Koop said.
      Rodgers noted that the insurance company could pursue such matters against the couple in a civil case. But the judge also ordered frozen all assets held by the couple, and ordered no relatives or employees to spend any money on their behalf without a court order.