A woman from Dallas has admitted to running COVID-19 scams that defrauded insurers out of millions of dollars.
Connie Jo Clampitt, 52, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas announced.
“As the country struggled to cope with a devastating pandemic, this defendant conspired to swindle insurance providers out of millions of dollars,” U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton said in the press release. “She exploited the healthcare system when it was at its most vulnerable, indirectly raising healthcare costs for everyday Americans.”
Clampitt was indicted in December over the phony insurance claims for COVID-19 tests, which court documents show were never actually performed. The fraudsters obtained patient information from a clinic where one of the defendants worked as a lab technician.
Overall, the defendants submitted $30 million and ended up taking more than $7 million in reimbursements, court documents said.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has presented the most challenging circumstances our healthcare providers and insurers have faced in generations. Schemes to financially exploit the system when providers and insurers are facing these monumental challenges must be dismantled, and those responsible must be held to account,” Simonton said when the indictment was first announced.
Fraud is a constant threat to North Texans, with numerous scams being perpetrated on unsuspecting victims.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, a 70-year-old Colleyville woman was roped in by an international online romance scam, losing roughly $70,000 of her money in the process.
The issue is especially serious in Dallas, where 750 fraud offenses have been reported so far this year, according to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard.
Clampitt faces up to five years in prison and a $7.29 million forfeiture. She will also forfeit items seized during the investigation, including two houses worth $2.5 million, different bank accounts, six luxury watches, and six vehicles, according to officials.
