Indiana woman charged with insurance fraud for $300,000

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insurance fraud

She allegedly embezzled from her own employer through 59 counts of forgery and theft.

A woman from Jeffersonville, Indiana, is facing charges insurance fraud with 59 counts of theft and forgery for the embezzlement of over $300,000 from the pet insurer that employed her.

PetFirst Healthcare administrative worker, Christina Heaven, has been stealing since 2010.

According to the report filed by the Jeffersonville Police Department with the Clark Circuit Court, the insurance fraud started two years ago. It was at that time that Heaven used her superior’s social security number to secretly open a checking account and credit card account in the name of PetFirst.

The woman then proceeded by depositing PetFirst policyholder checks into the account from January 2010 through May 2012, until they totaled $314,723. Of that amount, she was able to withdraw $293,703.

The insurance fraud money was used by Heaven for her own personal uses.

Allegedly, she managed to write checks to herself as well as her husband and their mutually owned business, and she used the credit cards to make purchases.

According to an email from one of Heaven’s attorneys, Brandon Smith, his law firm intends to “evaluate the merit of the charges.” Smith added that it is important that the public “not to rush to judgment before the evidence is available.”

Heaven has already entered a plea of not guilty to Judge Daniel Moore.

Judge Moore has now ordered that Heaven be held on $100,000 bond at the Clark County Jail. The trial was also scheduled by the judge, to start on November 20, 2012. Should Heaven, 35, be convicted of the Class C felonies, of which she is currently charged 59 times, she could face sentences for each that range from two to eight years in prison.

The PetFirst pet insurer where Heaven worked has yet to release any official statement regarding this occurrence of insurance fraud, how it was allowed to occur over this length of time, and what efforts will be taken in the future in order to prevent such fraudulent activities from occurring again in the future through the use of policyholder money.

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