St. Lucie County Resident Sentenced to Prison and Ordered to Pay Over $1 Million for Orchestrating

[TexasTowelie]

St. Lucie County Resident Sentenced to Prison and Ordered to Pay Over $1 Million for Orchestrating Wire Fraud Scheme and Embezzling Employers


On July 31, 2019, Sabrinea Lallonie Brooks, 28, of St. Lucie County, Florida, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg to 48 months in prison and ordered to pay $ 1,071,249 in restitution for orchestrating a wire fraud scheme and embezzling funds from employers (Case No. 19cr14020).

Ariana Fajardo Orshan, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Brian Swain, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service (USSS), Miami Field Office, and Javaro Sims, Chief, Delray Beach Police Department, made the announcement.

According to the court docket, including the criminal Information and a Stipulated Factual Basis that was filed in support of Brooks’ guilty plea, between February 2014 through December 2015, Brooks was employed as a billing and collections specialist by companies Apex Billing, LLC, Dream Center for Recovery, Supportive Healthcare Services, and Wellness Center of Palm Beach, LLC. Brooks without authorization, contacted third party issuer agents of insurance companies and using fraudulent pretenses and making materially false representations, caused the third party issuer agents of insurance companies to give her treatment provider registration codes, pin numbers, and links. Brooks used this information to access the third party issuer agents’ website, to create new user accounts, to re-register treatment providers, and change the method of payment and/or the routing of insurance provider payments, intended for treatment providers. As a result of her wire fraud, Brooks received at least $463,402.30 in illegal proceeds.

While working for these companies, Brooks also intercepted “Vpayments”/ virtual credit cards issued as insurance payments to several treatment providers. Thereafter, Brooks processed some of the “Vpayments”/ virtual credit cards using the Square merchant processing mobile payment program. Brooks created several Square accounts, which she linked to bank accounts under her control. Because of her access device fraud, Brooks received at least $57,632.76, in illegal proceeds.

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/pr/st-lucie-county-resident-sentenced-prison-and-ordered-pay-over-1-million-orchestrating