Insurance Fraud

You never thought the cops would be on to you. You owned an office building in an area of town you thought would gentrify, i.e., the rich people would move into the area, and you could raise rents in Chateau LeCrack from 50 cents a foot a month to 2 bucks. In fact, the area fell in value, as mobile computing had the rich people simply move from a blue state to a red state, and the most you could charge for rent fell to 30 cents. So your building was insured as being worth $3 million when, in fact, in a real sale, it was maybe worth $2 million.

So you got "clever." That's what happens when you grow sympathy for the devil.

You torched the place. Tried to make it look like an accident from some smoker getting carried away. But ah, those security cameras from the building across the street gave you away. Should have left your windows dirty. Welcome to insurance fraud, flavor #1 of many. Can you blame those people for being a bit paranoid when you call asking for a $3 million check?