An attorney for a Texas law firm accused of orchestrating the largest home insurance fraud scheme in Louisiana in the aftermath there of 2021’s Hurricane Ida has been criminally charged by federal prosecutors.
Richard William Huye III, 34, faces a count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a bill of information filed against him on Friday. That bill of information, filed in New Orleans’s federal courthouse, contained the first criminal charges to result from a lengthy investigation into the McClenny Moseley and Associates (MMA) law firm, which drew authorities’ scrutiny over the manner in which it had solicited as clients thousands of homeowners victimized by Ida and other potent storms – including some who were purportedly defrauded of their insurance proceeds or had them unduly reduced.
Furthermore, though there was no immediate indication as to how Huye may eventually resolve the allegations against him, federal criminal court defendants being charged through bills of information rather than grand jury indictments often signal their intent to plead guilty and cooperate with authorities pursuing other targets related to their cases.
Huye’s bill of information recounts how he started working for MMA – referred to in the document as “law firm A” – three days after category 4 Ida struck south-east Louisiana in late August 2021 and devastated the region. He then allegedly opened an office for MMA in New Orleans, where he lived at the time, in October of that year while the firm encouraged the Alabama-based Apex roofing company to begin operating in Louisiana, according to the bill of information.
MMA allegedly advised Apex – which is not named in Huye’s bill of information – that it could use assignment of benefits (AOB) forms allowing the roofing company to seek payment directly from homeowners’ insurance companies without restriction. Yet most Louisiana homeowners have language prohibiting such assignments or requiring prior approval for them, said a statement issued by the office of David Courcelle, the New Orleans US attorney.
Apex then began signing up hundreds of homeowners with those AOB forms and sent them to MMA for handling, prosecutors allege. The law firm also allegedly instructed the roofing company to sign a legal services retention contract on behalf of those homeowners without their knowing about or authorizing it.
Huye, meanwhile, electronically transmitted “false and misleading letters of representation to hundreds of Louisiana homeowners’ insurance companies” in which he and MMA maintained that they represented only the insured – without ever disclosing their role in the Apex AOBs, Courcelle’s office alleged. MMA and Huye also allegedly “made additional fraudulent representations to Louisiana homeowners’ insurance companies in other communications, mediations and court filings in which no mention of the roofing company AOBs was ever made”, Courcelle’s office added.
Federal civil court proceedings in 2023 unearthed the scheme attributed to Huye, MMA and someone identified in Friday’s bill of information only as “co-conspirator 1” – who matches the description of firm managing partner Zach Moseley.
MMA’s counsel back then acknowledged that the firm sent at least 856 legal letters falsely claiming it represented homeowners but was actually acting for a roofing company. MMA also admitted that the firm settled at least nine matters by mediation without disclosing that, Courcelle’s office said in its statement.
Huye and MMA additionally filed at least one demand for damages on behalf of a Louisiana homeowner without that party’s “full consent”, along with “several other complaints for declaratory judgment that falsely stated who [the firm] actually represented”.
The bill of information against Huye outlines the stories of eight Louisiana homeowners whose property damage claims were hurt by his and MMA’s alleged machinations. Most of them either did not receive money meant to repair their roofs or had the amount reduced after the withholding of unauthorized attorneys’ fees and expenses, prosecutors alleged.
Prosecutors alleged that Moseley – being described under the co-conspirator 1 label – in some instances “endorsed settlement checks without proper authorization from homeowners and deposited funds earmarked for their damages into [the] bank account” for MMA.
The conspiracy to commit wire fraud charge filed against Huye could carry up to five years in prison and a fine of about $250,000 if it leads to a conviction.
Prior to Friday’s charging papers, federal judges in Louisiana and a state insurance department fraud investigation determined MMA – beside just Apex – had used an online advertising agency named Velawcity to sign up thousands of people victimized by storms. Those alleged methods violated Louisiana’s legal ethics code, which forbids paying non-lawyers to sign up clients.
Louisiana subsequently forced MMA to forfeit its clients and disbarred Huye, who moved from New Orleans to Austin, Texas. And the state’s insurance commissioner imposed a record $2m in fines on him, Moseley and MMA, as Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana reported .
MMA filed for bankruptcy protection in Houston in 2024, seeking to liquidate. In July, WWL Louisiana reported, the state’s supreme court ruled that MMA could not collect any fees from law firms that took over their clients’ cases after forfeiting them if it’s proven that they were signed up illegally or unethically.
The Guardian unsuccessfully reached out to Huye for comment on Saturday, the five-year anniversary of Ida.
Richard William Huye III, 34, faces a count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a bill of information filed against him on Friday. That bill of information, filed in New Orleans’s federal courthouse, contained the first criminal charges to result from a lengthy investigation into the McClenny Moseley and Associates (MMA) law firm, which drew authorities’ scrutiny over the manner in which it had solicited as clients thousands of homeowners victimized by Ida and other potent storms – including some who were purportedly defrauded of their insurance proceeds or had them unduly reduced.
This report is published with credit to theguardian.com. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on theguardian.com →
Source: theguardian.com · Ramon Antonio Vargas. Published 30 Aug 2026, 10:00 am.
