Travel insurance agent faked hospital stays to get $588K: feds

A former Indiana travel insurance employee was sentenced to prison after prosecutors said she submitted dozens of fraudulent hospital bills linked to insurance policies from her employer to collect over half a million dollars, according to an April 15 news release.

Maria Caceres, 56, worked at Seven Corners, a travel insurance business in Carmel, where prosecutors say she committed wire fraud between May 2011 and September 2016, the release said. She previously pleaded guilty to the charge.

A lawyer for Caceres did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

The employee submitted 30 fake insurance claims to her business after purchasing insurance policies with accomplices under fake names, federal prosecutors said in the release.

Caceres and her accomplices then created fake email addresses allegedly connected to a hospital in Venezuela where fictitious travelers got emergency medical services, and submitted the claims to Seven Corners for their payout, according the release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.

However, none of these expenses were real, and Caceres created fake customer accounts and documents to fool her employer into accepting the claims, prosecutors said.

Seven Corners ended up paying out over $588,000 to accounts “controlled by Caceres’ accomplices,” prosecutors said in the release. According to court documents, the insurance worker had a personal relationship with an accomplice whose account much of the funds were directed to.

The former Indiana resident was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and one year of supervised release. She was ordered to pay more than $496,000 in restitution.

Carmel is about 16 miles north of Indianapolis.

Mariah Rush is a National Real-Time Reporter. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and has previously worked for The Chicago Tribune, The Tampa Bay Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer.