Woman Pleads Guilty to Submitting False Claims to Guardian Life Insurance

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Karen Echeverri, 34, of Alexandria, Virginia, has pled guilty to health care fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. and John G. Perren, Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Echeverri will be sentenced by the Honorable Ellen S. Huvelle on May 21, 2010. At that time she will face a guidelines sentence of up to six months of incarceration.

During the plea proceeding, Echeverri admitted that between September 1, 2005, and November 29, 2006, she submitted more than 100 claims for reimbursement of medical expenses to The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, N.Y. (“Guardian”). Echeverri faxed the claims from the office where she was working in the District of Columbia to Guardian. Echeverri knew that nearly all the claims were false because she had not received medical treatment as she had claimed and she attached falsified statements on her therapist’s letterhead that indicated that she had seen her therapist on dates when, in fact, she had not. The false claims submitted by Echeverri totaled more than $10,000.

In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Machen and Acting FBI Assistant Director in Charge Perren praised the investigative efforts of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They also commended Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Zeno as well as Carolyn Cody, Paralegal Specialist of the Fraud and Public Corruption Section.