Due to attempted fraud of her employer’s workers’ compensation insurer, a woman from Maryland was sentenced on Nov. 10 to two and a half years in a Nevada prison, according to state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto.
The woman began her fraudulent litigation by claiming she suffered a personal injury in October of 2006 at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel when a vase fell and struck her. She said she reported the incident to hotel security and went to a hospital seeking treatment instead of receiving medical treatment at the scene.
Following the incident, said the Nevada General Attorney’s office said, she requested a claim for compensation, which was denied after her case was proved false on a surveillance video. The video showed vase had fallen, but missed the woman.
However, the woman hired another attorney who filed her next claim with her company’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier. The second claim said she had been struck on the neck, back, and head by the same vase. The incident caused her to become disabled, she claimed. This time, the claim was successful and the insurer paid her $20,000.
Nevada officials later investigated the claim and filed fraud charges against the woman. She eventually pleaded guilty to making false statements or representations to obtained benefits. By court order, the woman must pay $4,000 in extradition costs, more than $20,000 in restitution and $1,000 in court costs in addition to her prison time which turned into probation after five months.
The woman had previously failed to appear for Las Vegas court hearings twice and had to be extradited from her home state.
Source: Las Vegas Sun, “Woman sentenced for workers comp fraud stemming from alleged Las Vegas Hilton injury,” Aida Ahmed, Dec. 21, 2012
