Recently we’ve seen a few more examples of why it’s important for businesses and government organizations to review and strengthen their online security systems and internal accounting controls.
Fraudulent artists in Massachusetts raked in a whopping $6,139,720 in public benefits over the past fiscal year, according to a newly released report by State Auditor Susan Bump.
While in the private sector, the Massachusetts scammer who defrauded victims of nearly $1 million by breaching the company’s email system to divert money and romantically manipulating women to help him, was recently arrested. Was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
“While fraud represents a small fraction of total public aid spending, it has an adverse effect on public confidence in these programs,” Bump said.
This is clearly the case and a slap on the face of the hardworking state taxpayers.
MassHealth, which minus federal reimbursements, accounted for 22% of the fiscal year 2022 state budget, took the biggest hit, with 56% losses, more than $3.4 million.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was also high, accounting for 31% of the losses, or more than $1.9 million. And at 34%, SNAP also had the largest share of cases.
Bristol County, the sixth most populous of the state’s 14 counties, had the highest incidence of fraud, including 111 cases of 555 employment fraud and 116 cases of personal care attendant fraud. Hampden County, the eighth most populous county but one of the poorest, had 509 cases.
To counter these staggering numbers, one scandal involved a Cambridge woman who pleaded guilty to fraudulently defrauding $71,636 in Social Security benefits and $13,923 in SNAP benefits for her mother since deceased.
In company fraud, Paul M. Iwuanyanwu, 41, of Medfield pleaded guilty to federal charges of wire fraud, email fraud, conspiracy to commit those crimes, and unlawful monetary transactions on October 27. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Iwuanyanwu tried to pull off what’s known as a commercial email settlement scheme, in which he and a co-conspirator, Lafayette, La. K Larry Brown Jr., earned around $900,000 in 2018.
According to court records, at the time of planning, Ivanyanwu was employed as a nurse’s aide at Needham Nursing Home. According to the Justice Department, Brown was sentenced in May 2020 to nearly 10 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Several weeks earlier, the newspaper mentioned another business email settlement plan, involving the city of Tuxbury. According to town manager Richard Montuori, a city employee received an email in late December from what appeared to be a regular supplier requesting $102,000 via wire transfer for an authorized invoice for payment.
Fortunately, the city’s insurance allowed it to recover most of its money.
This most recently publicized business email settlement scam employs similar techniques.
Iwuanyanwu and Brown set up bank accounts and create email addresses—at least one of which differed from a real business email account by just a letter—that tricked employees of legitimate shipping companies into their fictitious accounts to divert funds for business operations. cheated for.
According to court records, Ivanyanwu is also accused of romantically molesting three women and was paid a total of $3,500.
The rise in jobless claims related to COVID-19 and the popularity of conducting monetary transactions online have also created many opportunities for fraudulent behaviour.
Take this as another warning.
