Former UPMC Claims Director Sentenced to Prison for Embezzling $846K through Ghost Employees

PITTSBURGH – A Washington state resident has been sentenced in federal court to 24 months of imprisonment, followed by three years supervised release, and was ordered to pay approximately $846,819 in restitution on his conviction of embezzlement, United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced today.

United States District Judge David Stewart Cercone, imposed the sentence on Ronald Larry Locy, 48, of Southeast Olympia, Washington.

According to information presented to the Court, at the time of the offense, Locy was the Senior Director of Claims for the UPMC Health Plan Claims Department. Over an eight-year period, Locy caused UPMC to pay two "ghost employees" of UPMC Health Plan, for work and bonuses to which those ghost employees were not entitled. The loss to UPMC Health Plan was approximately $846,819.

According to Judge Cercone, Locy’s scheme was sophisticated in that Locy falsified records and emails in order to conceal his ghost employee fraud.

U.S. Attorney Brady commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Locy.