U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo has announced the sentencing of Maureen Holleran, a 62-year-old resident of Buffalo, who was convicted of filing a false tax return. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara sentenced Holleran to 18 months in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas A.C. Penrose, who managed the case, detailed that from September 2015 to October 2023, Holleran worked remotely as a worker’s compensation claims handler for an insurance company based in Canada, referred to as Insurance Company 1. Her role involved evaluating and authorizing payments for workers' compensation claims up to $2,000 without supervisor approval.
Between July 2020 and June 2023, Holleran submitted over 1,200 fraudulent claims through the company's claim processing system. Each claim was below the $2,000 threshold and was paid into bank accounts she controlled. She fabricated expenses like lost wages and medical reimbursements to justify these payments, resulting in approximately $2,370,848.24 in fraudulent claims.
To execute her scheme, Holleran created fake email accounts resembling those of policy claimants and used them to register on Insurance Company 1’s client portal where she entered her banking information. For tax years 2020 through 2022, she embezzled about $1,592,095 from the company without reporting it on her income tax returns. The IRS estimates the owed taxes for these years at $545,792.
The investigation leading to Holleran's sentencing was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Division under Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Henry Chavis.
