A 46-year-old Scarborough woman pleaded guilty Monday to embezzling nearly $550,000 from a medical practices where she worked.
Carrie Caporino pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to two counts of embezzlement from health care providers and one count of Social Security number fraud, according to a release from U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank.
Prosecutors said that between 2014 and 2016, Caporino made personal charges on office credit cards, used office funds to pay a personal credit card and her PayPal account, and wrote office checks to pay for personal expenses including her rent.
In 2016 and 2017, Caporino embezzled approximately $253,000 from a Falmouth physician by mobile depositing checks made payable to her employer from patients and insurance companies into her personal bank accounts and by writing checks to herself that had not been authorized by her employer, according to the release.
She also used a Social Security number not assigned to her on an application for health insurance while she worked for the dental practice.
In July 2017, Caporino was one of more than 400 people arrested across the country as part of a nationwide crackdown on health care fraud, The Boston Globe reported.
The Department of Justice said at the time that 412 people, including 56 doctors nationwide, were arrested as part of what Attorney General Jeff Sessions called “the largest health care fraud takedown operation in American history.”
Caporino faces up to 10 years in prison for the embezzlement counts and up to five years for the Social Security charge. The maximum fine for each count is $250,000.
She will be sentenced after completion of a presentence report by the U.S. Probation Office.
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