Iowa

In order to qualify for unemployment benefits it is required to prove in that application that one is able to work, available to work and actively seeking work. But that criteria doesn’t stop fraudsters from filing for benefits. The state of Iowa recently released...

Jill Coleman, a Creston, Iowa mental health counselor, was charged in late 2020 with felony practices, felony identity theft and misdemeanor tampering with records. This comes after prosecutors alleged that in 2018 through 2019 Coleman falsified 49 psychiatric diagnostic records for counseling services that...

Donald Glenn Connor of Fort Dodge, Iowa was sentenced to ten months in prison after stealing more than $15,000 in Social Security benefits. He pleaded guilty in February to one count of representative payee fraud. Connor applied to become the representative payee, someone the Social...

Jerry Johnson, 54, of Webster City, Iowa, was sentenced to federal prison for using his credit union bank account to obtain unemployment insurance money he did not qualify for. (He had this great idea to scam as many states as possible since their unemployment...

There’s nothing unusual about some greedy scammer fraudulently obtaining unemployment benefits, but it takes extra chutzpah to run the scam across several states. Alvin Lavon Rex (uh—King of thieves?) of Iowa admitted in a plea agreement that he opened multiple bank accounts in May...

Forrest Gump felt life was like a box of chocolates, but some crooks find fraud to be like a potato chip—try one and you just can’t stop. That seemed to be the experience of Tykeese McCray of Iowa. Back in 2011, McCray completed an...

The Department of Justice has been quite busy since COVID-19 turned the world upside a year ago. The pandemic that has plagued the world has also spurred many opportunities for fraud, especially in the area of unemployment. Today’s fraudster is Dennis George Chinn of...

Every minute counts when it comes to submitting claims to government healthcare programs. A primary care doctor in Webster City, Iowa was quick to tally the minutes he spent with his patients at multiple nursing facilities (and multiply that number by seven). After nearly...

An Iowa ear, nose, and throat doctor facing allegations of false Medicaid claims for endoscopic sinus surgeries contends that “reasonable people can disagree about the best medical options.” (But how reasonable it is to disagree on 115 medical procedures from one physician in one...

Listen to this Story The designers of Social Security in the U.S. realized that individuals with disabilities may have a unique set of challenges in order to live independently that requires supplemental financial support. That is why disabled individuals...