A supporter of President Donald Trump who reported a fire on his property where graffiti saying “Biden 2020,” “BLM” and the Anarchist symbol was daubed on his garage started it himself, according to charges.
Denis Molla, 29, of Brooklyn Center, has been indicted by a federal grand jury with two counts of wire fraud in connection with the Sept. 23, 2020, fire and vandalism.
The garage and three vehicles at his home in the 6900 block of N. Morgan Ave. were destroyed in a fire, with police arriving to find a series of political slogans graffitied in blue on garage doors.
Molla told police he was targeted because he was flying a Trump 2020 flag on his camper, and claims he saw three people in his yard on the night of the fire.
“In reality, as Molla well knew, Molla started his own property on fire, Molla spray painted the graffiti on his own property and there were no unknown males near his home,” the indictment stated.
At the time, it was noted that some of the graffiti didn’t even make sense, with the “A” symbol for Anarchists confusingly included alongside a slogan showing support for a political candidate in Biden. It’s possible though that the “A” sign was meant to signify “Antifa” given his wife blamed Black Lives Matter and “Antifa” for the fire in a Facebook post.
The indictment against Molla now alleges that he started the fire himself, as well as spray-painting the graffiti on his garage.
He has been charged with submitting more than $300,000 in fraudulent insurance claims, of which he received $61,000 in payouts. He also received $17,000 from donors through several Go Fund Me campaigns set up in the wake of the fire, one of which he set up himself.
After the fire, his wife posted on Facebook: “This morning, at 3:48 am … we woke up to a loud explosion, and saw that our camper was on fire, along with both of Dennis’s trucks, his garage and our entire back yard. Thank God our main house is safe. We are safe. Our children are safe.”