Military panel convicts soldier of medical fraud

[unhappycamper]

Military panel convicts soldier of medical fraud
By Matt Millham, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, December 16, 2007

HANAU, Germany — At his court-martial Friday, Sgt. Martin K. Hinneluther didn’t deny that the medical claims made in his name — more than $132,000 worth — were fraudulent.

He said it was an elder cousin who filed Tricare claims for various ills treated at Ghanaian clinics, not him. He was just a kindhearted dupe.

The military panel hearing his case didn’t agree.

After less than 90 minutes of deliberation at the military courthouse in Hanau, a panel of four officers and four enlisted found Hinneluther guilty of the three charges covering a dozen specifications of larceny and fraud.

“This case is simple,” Capt. Jacqueline Tubbs, one of two prosecutors, said in her closing argument. “It’s about greed and it’s about exploitation of the system.”


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51039