The Justice Department has charged 10 individuals for business email fraud schemes targeting Medicaid, Medicare and private insurers.
The prosecutions, announced by the Justice Department on Nov. 18, mostly involve business email compromise scams, where the defendants posed as business partners and deceived victims into thinking they were making legitimate payments to accounts.
The Justice Department alleged the actions of the 10 individuals being charged resulted in over $11.1 million in losses.
One of the alleged schemes, the Justice Department said, involved fraudulently diverting money meant for hospitals from public and private payers. The defendants allegedly sent emails posing as hospital business emails requesting payment reimbursing medical services be sent to new bank accounts that did not belong to the hospitals.
Five state Medicaid agencies, two Medicare contractors and two private insurers were deceived into sending payments through these emails, the Justice Department alleged.
In a press release, the Justice Department said these charges are the first coordinated action against business email compromise schemes targeting health insurers.