Local woman charged with forgery
thetimesnews.com | 3/18/08 | Staff Writer
A former insurance employee has been charged with more than a hundred counts in a check forging case. The Alamance County Sheriff's Department began investigating 36-year-old Yvonne Diane Wilson, of Way Road, Liberty, in late February after United Health Group Inc. officials reported fraudulent activity involving altered patient benefit checks.
After a joint investigation with the U.S. Postal Inspector's office, and fraud investigators with Wachovia, BB&T and United Health Group, investigators discovered that 98 fraudulent checks totaling $40,946 had been issued and deposited into two different bank accounts at Wachovia and BB&T, the sheriff's department said in a statement.
According to warrants, Wilson, who worked for the insurance company from her home in Alamance County, allegedly stole two United Health Care benefit checks. She is also accused of stealing the identity of a customer to open one of the bank accounts where the checks were deposited and of forging the signatures of the payees on the checks before depositing them in the accounts.
Wilson was charged Monday with one count of identity theft, two counts of embezzlement and 98 counts of forgery of endorsement. The postal inspector's office may press federal charges, the release stated. She is currently being held in the Alamance County jail under a $5,000 secured bond.
The sheriff's department said Tuesday that more than $14,000 found in the bank accounts has been frozen pending court action.