The Eastern District Court of Texas in Tyler, Texas, on Wednesday, March 21, 2018. 

A 33-year-old pilot, formerly of Kemah, was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $988,000 in restitution for conspiring to commit wire fraud and arson in the Eastern District of Texas.

Theodore Robert Wright III pleaded guilty to the charges on Dec. 7, 2017. He was sentenced in federal court on Oct. 4, according to a news release from the court.  

The news release said Wright led a multijurisdictional fraud and arson scheme that stretched from Hawaii to the Gulf of Mexico and involved the destruction of luxury goods, including vehicles, aircraft and water vessels, according to information presented in court. 

Wright and his co-conspirators, Shane Gordon, 46, and Raymond Fosdick, 42, both of Houston, and Edward Delima, 42, of Honolulu,  acquired luxury goods and obtained insurance coverage for those goods in amounts exceeding the purchase prices. Wright and his co-conspirators then devised and carried out schemes to destroy those goods and defraud insurance companies.

The assets destroyed in the scheme included a 1966 Beechcraft Baron, a 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo, a 1971 Cessna 500 and a 1998 Hunter Passage yacht. The Beechcraft Baron made an emergency landing in the Gulf of Mexico, sank in deep water and was not recovered. 

The Lamborghini Gallardo crashed into a ditch full of water, causing the vehicle to flood. 

The Cessna 500 was destroyed when Fosdick set it on fire at Wright’s direction at an airport in Athens. 

The Hunter Passage sank at a marina in Hawaii. 

Fraudulent insurance claims were filed in relation to each of these incidents. Wright and his co-defendants also filed a fraudulent $1 million personal injury lawsuit related to the crash in the Gulf of Mexico. The suit was settled for $100,000.

On May 17, 2017, Wright, Gordon, Fosdick and Delima were charged with offenses related to their conduct in the scheme in the Eastern District of Texas. Wright’s co-conspirators have all pleaded guilty.

Delima pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and was sentenced to a five-year term of probation. 

Fosdick pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and conspiring to commit arson and on Jan. 24, 2018, was sentenced to 39 months in federal prison. 

Fosdick is serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution Beckley in West Virginia and is scheduled to be released in May 2020, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator. 

Gordon pleaded guilty to making false statements to a federal agent and was sentenced to two years in federal prison Monday and ordered to pay $440,000 in restitution.

Gordon is serving his sentence at Federal Correctional Institution Herlong in California and is scheduled to be released in September 2020, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator. 

Wright was ordered to pay restitution of more than $169,000 to State Farm; $440,000 jointly and severally with Fosdick and Gordon to Catlin Insurance; $184,000 jointly and severally with Fosdick to Old Republic Aerospace Inc.; and $195,000 jointly and severally with Delima to Progressive Insurance, according to the judgment in the criminal case. 

Wright is scheduled to report to the Bureau of Prisons by 2 p.m. Nov. 8, according to the public access to court electronic records database.  

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Federal Aviation Administration Law Enforcement Assistance Program, the Texas Department of Insurance and the National Insurance Crime Bureau.