March 4, 2010 - COLUMBIA, SC—Acting United States Attorney Kevin F. Mcdonald stated today that Garry Lewis Walker, age 47, of Patterson, New Jersey, pled guilty today to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349. United States District Judge Joseph F Anderson, Jr., accepted the plea and will sentence Walker at a later date.
Evidence presented at the change of plea hearing established that Walker was one of seven co-conspirators who defrauded Companion Property & Casualty Insurance (CPCI), a subsidiary of BlueCross BlueShield (BCBS) of South Carolina.
Several employees of BCBS changed federal tax identification numbers of legitimate BCBS health care providers to individuals who were not health care providers, including Walker. Walker and others outside BCBS would receive workers’ compensation checks in the mail, cash the checks at banks using bogus accounts they established, and then distribute the proceeds among the seven charged participants. All of the co-conspirators obtained approximately $487,346.98 through this scheme as a result of 116 fraudulent checks being cashed. Walker is the last of six co-conspirators to plead guilty. The seventh charged co-conspirator died during an unrelated domestic dispute.
Mr. McDonald stated the maximum penalty Walker can receive is a fine of $250,000 and imprisonment for 20 years.
The fraud initially was discovered by the Special Investigations Unit of BCBS, along with CPCI, who then referred the matter to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Winston D. Holliday, Jr., of the Columbia office handled the case.
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