Nine South Florida residents are charged with stealing more than $800,000 from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.
Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Monty Stokes, Special Agent in Charge, United States Department of Veteran Affairs, Office of Inspector General, Criminal Investigations Division (VA OIG), made the announcement.
Mary Flynn, 67, of Miami; George Byrnes, 55, of Coral Springs; Marta Correa, 58, of Miami; Judy Jasiecki, 54, of Davie; Gregory Kramer, 64, of Fort Pierce; Leroy Weston, 58, of Pembroke Pines; Devorah Rosello, 52, of Miami; Beverly Anne Garcia, 62, of Lake Worth; and Peggy Karrh, 61, of Royal Palm Beach are each charged with theft of government funds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 641. If convicted, the defendants each face a statutory maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
According to allegations in the Indictments, Mary Flynn, George Byrnes, Marta Correa, Judy Jasiecki, Gregory Kramer, Leroy Weston, Devorah Rosello, Beverly Anne Garcia, and Peggy Karrh obtained and utilized, for their own unauthorized personal use, federal government benefit funds of deceased veterans or their beneficiaries. All nine defendants failed to notify the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of the benefit recipients’ death; thereby, enabling continued payments for several years and in one case up to 14 years. In total, the VA made over $800,000 in fraudulently induced payments to the defendants.
Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the VA OIG, Criminal Investigations Division. These cases are being prosecuted Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gera Peoples, Jonathan Stratton, Breezye Telfair, Rilwan Adeduntan, and Matthew Langley.
The charges contained in the Indictments are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
