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TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal
Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced
that a Salem County Sheriff’s Department
officer has been sentenced in connection
with a health insurance fraud.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, John K. Hoover, 41, of Pedricktown,
was sentenced on Oct. 19 to three years
probation and was ordered by Superior Court
Judge Walter L. Marshall Jr. in Gloucester
County to pay $20,468 in restitution. Hoover
was sentenced pursuant to his July 27 guilty
plea to theft by deception. He was required
to forfeit his job as a sheriff’s
officer as a result of the plea.
In
pleading guilty, Hoover, who was employed
by Salem County as a sheriff’s officer,
admitted that he falsified a health insurance
benefits form reflecting that he was separated
but still married to his wife and that his
step-daughter remained his dependent for
employer-sponsored health insurance. An
investigation determined that Hoover was
actually divorced and was required to pay
for his ex-wife’s health insurance
out of pocket. As a result of the fraud,
Hoover received more than $20,400 in health
care claims, prescription drug benefits
and insurance premiums paid by Salem County
for his ex-wife and his step-daughter to
which he was not entitled.
State
Investigator Anthony Butler and Deputy Attorney
General Joan Burke were assigned to the
investigation. Burke represented the Office
of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the sentencing.
“It
is particularly disturbing when sworn law
enforcement officers violate the public’s
trust by choosing to participate in insurance
fraud schemes,” Prosecutor Brown said.
“The Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
vigorously investigates and prosecutes cases
of this nature.”
The
Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor was
established by the Automobile Insurance
Cost Reduction Act of 1998. The office is
the centralized state agency that investigates
and prosecutes both civil and criminal insurance
fraud, as well as Medicaid fraud.
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