Billing fraud — a bird’s-eye view

In April, a grand jury indicted Marzieh Abedin for allegedly embezzling close to $1.5 million in COVID-relief funds from her former employee, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA). Abedin had been responsible for coordinating payment approvals for vendors offering COVID vaccination services. But Deloitte Consulting, which OHA had hired to help in the payments process, soon discovered that something was amiss.

The consulting firm noticed that catering services at a large vaccination event never took place on the dates and locations stated in the invoice, according to an article in The Oregonian. Before long, OHA realized that this was part of a bigger, more complex scam that Abedin had devised, involving stolen identities she used to open bank accounts and create a string of fake documents.

After launching an investigation in November last year, law enforcement uncovered a sham company called Leone Catering that Abedin had used to issue false invoices and garner payments that went to a fraudulent bank account. Over the course of last year, Abedin submitted 35 invoices for nonexistent events and ultimately deposited $1,492,846 into Leone Catering’s bank account, money that she then transferred to another account under the name of someone whose identity she stole, according to The Oregonian article.