Mother and Son Indicted in Scheme to Defraud the Baltimore Washington Medical Center

BALTIMORE, MD—A federal grand jury has indicted Margie L. Milisitz, age 58, of Severna Park, Maryland, and her son, John Milisitz, age 37, of Carlsbad, California, for mail fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property in connection with a scheme to defraud the Baltimore Washington Medical Center (BWMC), where Margie Milisitz was employed. The indictment was returned on March 25, 2010, and unsealed today upon the arrest of the defendants in San Diego, California.

The indictment was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to the 18 count indictment, Margie Milisitz was employed by BWMC as the Manager of Telecommunications and was responsible for overseeing the purchase and maintenance of telecommunication services and equipment for BWMC, including cellular telephones, pagers, and other technology used by physicians and other personnel at the hospital. It was part of Margie Milisitz’s duties to select vendors for the various telecommunications services and equipment, issue purchase orders, as well as to review and approve invoices from those vendors for payment of those services and equipment.

The indictment alleges that beginning in May 2005, and continuing until January 15, 2008, Margie and John Milisitz created and caused to be created false invoices in the name of Global 1 Telecommunications and U.S. Cellular that purported to charge BWMC for various telecommunications services and equipment that had in fact never been provided to BWMC. According to the indictment, Margie Milisitz would falsely indicate to the BWMC Accounts Payable Department that the goods and services listed on the Global 1 and US Cellular invoices had been received by BWMC, which, in turn, caused the Accounts Payable Department to issue payment on the invoices. The payments were deposited into bank accounts in California which were controlled by John Milisitz. As a result of this scheme, the indictment alleges that the Milisitz’s obtained more than $380,000 from BWMC to which they were not entitled. The indictment seeks forfeiture of that amount as the proceeds of the scheme.

The defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each count of mail fraud and 10 years in prison on each of 16 counts of interstate transportation of stolen property. Margie and John Milisitz are not yet scheduled for an initial appearance in the United States District Court for Southern California.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorney Kathleen O. Gavin, who is prosecuting the case.