Couple gets prison in insurance scam targeting Mexican pregnant women
For many women living in Mexico preparing to give birth, it almost sounded too good to be true.
A Chula Vista couple was offering pregnant visa holders private health insurance that would allow them to deliver their babies in the U.S. and access high-quality pre-natal and post-natal care.
Nearly 300 women accepted, only to later learn it was a scam.
Prosecutors say the couple — Melissa Alvarez Torres and Jose Luis Olmos Hernandez — took the womens’ payments of $1,200 to $3,000 each and instead fraudulently signed them up for a state maternity care program offered only to eligible employed, middle-income California residents.
On Tuesday, Alvarez and Olmos were sentenced in San Diego federal court to 33 months and 40 months, respectively. They have agreed to pay the state about $1.1 million in restitution, as well as forfeit about $424,000 — the amount they pocketed from victims in profits.
Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/courts/story/2021-10-29/insurance-scam-mexican-women