Former Oregon Health Authority employee indicted on charges she stole more than $1 million in COVID-19 funds

A warrant for the arrest of a former Oregon Well being Authority worker has been requested by the state Division of Justice after an investigation uncovered an embezzlement scheme prosecutors say resulted within the theft of almost $1.5 million in COVID-19 funds.

Oregon Lawyer Normal Ellen Rosenblum introduced that former state well being company worker Marzieh Abedin was indicted by a Marion County grand jury on 21 legal counts together with felony theft, identification theft and forgery

The investigation started in November 2021, when the Oregon Well being Authority reported the alleged fraud to the Oregon Division of Justice Legal Division

Abedin had been chargeable for coordinating the approval of distributors requesting funds from the company for the state’s COVID-19 vaccination response. In the course of the summer time of 2021, prosecutors say, she used her place to create fraudulent invoices for sham firms. State justice division attorneys say she would then create faux information of the approval course of, and would authorize funds to financial institution accounts she had opened.

“Happily this fraud was caught by OHA and instantly referred to our Legal Justice group,” Rosenblum mentioned in a press release. “We have been capable of rapidly observe the cash by way of numerous financial institution accounts and recuperate almost all of it. Let this be a warning to anybody seeking to personally profit from a public well being emergency—nobody, state worker or in any other case, is above the legislation.”

In the course of the investigation, the Oregon Division of Justice recovered all however $6,800 of almost $1.5 million stolen from the Oregon Well being Authority, in line with the company