“Operation Forgery Factory” gets PA Woman 6-15 years

Back in July we brought you the story of nine people who were arrested in March of 2010 because of a $1 Million insurance fraud scam for home health care services that were never provided. Those people are now facing their punishments.

According to the Pocono Record, Judi Grate, the 61-year-old woman who is said to have been the ringleader of the bunch, will spend a little over 6.5 years to 15 years in state prison for her fraudulent claims deception of health insurance companies. They were conned out of more than $1 million from Grate, who was already on public assistance and used the money to donate to her church and finance Cadillacs.

She was sentenced on September 15^th by Monroe County Court Judge Jennifer Sibum after she pled guilty to insurance fraud, theft by deception and conspiracy to commit theft by deception.

Grate, who in fact does have legitimate medical ailments, submitted fraudulent invoices to health insurance companies from 2000 to 2010 for home health care she never actually received. She also had policies with two different companies, each unaware that she was insured by the other until one of them grew suspicious. That started the state Attorney General’s Office investigation which lead to Grate’s arrest and the arrest of eight others.

Along with the prison time, Grate must also pay a total restitution of $1,145,685.

Two others that were also involved in the scam were Patricia Lesane, 53, and Pecilla Flowers, 57, both of Georgetown, S.C. They were each sentenced to 24 months of probation after pleading guilty to insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit theft.

Barbara Rollins, 64, of Raeford, N.C., got 12 months of probation after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit theft.

Earlier, a fourth co-defendant, Uhura Byrd, 38, of Newark, N.J., was sentenced to six months probation.

The remaining four defendants are still awaiting trial.