Knoxville Man Sentenced To Twelve Years Imprisonment For Workers' Compensation Fraud

ABINGDON, VIRGINIA – United States Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy announced today that Carlos Perry, 58, Knoxville, Tenn. was sentenced last week in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Abingdon to twelve years in federal prison.

Perry was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $324,914.70. Perry had previously pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud.

According to evidence presented at the sentencing and guilty plea hearings by Assistant United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee, between January 2011 and February 2014, Perry developed a scheme in which he defrauded six different insurance companies of workers’ compensation benefits using false business and fictitious employees.  An investigation by the United States Secret Service determined that Perry’s scheme entailed Perry impersonating an owner of six fictitious businesses located in Wise, Va., Johnson City, Tenn., Bristol, Va., and Abingdon, Va., in order to obtain workers’ compensation insurance.  Perry then filed false injury claims on behalf of the fictitious employees.

Perry received the checks sent by the insurance companies and impersonated the fictitious employees at doctor’s visits and in communications with the insurance companies.  The United States Secret Service discovered that Perry utilized nineteen fictitious identities in the course of his scheme and used the social security numbers of numerous real persons to execute his fraud.  On January 29, 2014, Perry was arrested by the United States Secret Service and the United States Marshals Service at a doctor’s office in Kingsport, Tenn., where he was impersonating one of the fictitious employees.  As a result of Perry’s scheme, six separate insurance companies sustained a combined loss of $401,649.66.

The investigation of this case was conducted by United States Secret Service, United States Marshals Service, and the Virginia State Police.  Assistant United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee is prosecuting the case for the United States.