Hot tubs are great for anyone with sore muscles or chronic pain. According to a Department of Justice press release, the person at the center of today’s “Fraud of the Day” spent up to 15 hours a day in a hot tub due to an injury she sustained on the job at the U.S Postal Service while collecting more than $400,000 in federal disability benefits. (Now she’s in a bunch of hot water over her bogus claim.)
The story details that the woman claimed to be completely disabled following an accident and regularly reported to her doctor that she was housebound without the ability to much bending, lifting, carrying or sitting. (However, she was able to float around in her hot tub for nearly three-quarters of the day. Talk about being waterlogged.)
Evidence presented at her six-day trial suggested otherwise. Video recordings captured over three years showed her actively working in her yard raking leaves, mowing the lawn, carrying yard debris and repeatedly bending over. (Maybe she was just trying to maintain the area around her hot tub.) Over 15 years, the woman received $429,000 in federal disability benefits.
The 62-year-old woman was convicted on five counts of wire fraud, two counts of workers’ compensation fraud and one count of theft of government money. She faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. She will also be ordered to pay restitution to the federal government. (If this woman receives prison time for her illegal acts, she’ll be facing more than just sore back muscles from a lumpy prison cell bunk. Unfortunately, her soothing hot tub will not be accessible to relieve her pain.)
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