A Vicksburg man, Laron Evans, was sentenced on Thursday to 32 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $2 million in restitution for his role in a large-scale healthcare fraud scheme. Evans was convicted on multiple charges, including conspiring to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, healthcare fraud, money laundering, aggravated identity theft, and contempt of court.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Evans collaborated with co-defendant Travious Quinshad Jackson and others to execute a complex healthcare fraud scheme involving Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). The scheme relied on interstate wire transfers and the U.S. Postal Service to steal personal identification information (PII) from 57 individuals. Evans and his co-conspirators posed these individuals as employees of a non-existent company and sent the stolen PII to a third-party administrator in Maryland. This administrator then created fraudulent HSA accounts for the fake employees and issued corresponding debit cards.
Evans and Jackson used these debit cards to purchase gift cards, debit cards, and other goods from various retail stores in April and May of 2018, draining the fraudulent accounts. During this time, the third-party administrator discovered that the bank account Evans had provided for his fake company had insufficient funds to cover the HSA accounts’ reimbursements.
In addition to the healthcare fraud scheme, Evans used the stolen proceeds to purchase a 2018 Chevrolet Suburban for $44,335 in cash. Further investigations revealed that Evans continued his fraudulent activities while on bond. He falsely represented himself as the manager of a non-existent business in Orlando, Florida, to create more fraudulent HSA accounts and again used stolen employee information to request additional funds. In 2019, Evans attempted to gain up to $91,000 in HSA funds by submitting fake reimbursement claims to a third-party administrator in Minnesota.
Evans pled guilty to the charges in August 2019. His co-defendant, Jackson, was sentenced to two years in prison for aggravated identity theft and ordered to pay over $300,000 in restitution.
