Monday, February 28, 2011

Sacramento social worker defrauds elderly, blind, disabled of $278K

From the SacBee:
    A former Sacramento County social worker has been sentenced to state prison after pleading no contest to felony grand theft from the In-Home Supportive Services Program.

    Julie Mee Vue, 40, entered the plea today and admitted to an additional enhancement that the aggregate loss to the program exceeded $200,000, according to a Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office news release. Vue was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay $278,777.52 in restitution.

    Vue was extradited to Sacramento from Arkansas in September as part of a major fraud investigation into claims the she allegedly filed on behalf of people she had falsely enrolled as home health-care workers. As a Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services social worker, Vue handled cases for the state In-Home Supportive Services Program, which pays people to care for aged, blind and disabled individuals who live in their homes.