FORT WAYNE – Christina M. Morris, 50 years old, of Marion, Indiana, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Holly A. Brady on her plea of guilty to mail fraud, announced United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.
Morris was sentenced to 27 months in prison followed by 1 year of supervised release and was also ordered to pay $338,278.17 in restitution to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
According to documents in this case, beginning in 2007, Morris worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) at the VA Medical Center in Marion, Indiana. In February 2008, Morris suffered a fall while working. She then filed a worker’s compensation claim and began receiving benefits, including payment for medical care related to her injury and expenses. As late as 2018 and 2019, Morris was regularly submitting claims through the U.S. Mail for reimbursement alleging that she traveled roughly 200 miles roundtrip to a clinic for treatment six days per week and had incurred out of pocket expenses. Agents spoke with employees at the clinic who revealed that Morris had not received treatment at the clinic for years and that her claims and the receipts submitted to support them were fraudulent. The fraudulent claims began in January 2014 and continued until July 2019, when Morris was confronted by investigators and admitted that she had filed false claims for reimbursement for treatment, mileage and expenses. The investigation revealed that Morris had filed 670 fraudulent claims for a total of $338,278.17.
This case was investigated by the Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector General and the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of the Inspector General. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sarah E. Nokes.