Appeals Court Nixes Identity Theft Charge in Medicare Fraud Case

A woman convicted of about $13 million in Medicare fraud convinced a federal appeals court Tuesday to vacate her aggravated identity theft sentence because the US didn’t show the use of her relatives’ names was central to the fraud.

The US failed to show that Tamara Yvonne Motley’s use of her mother and nephew’s names while perpetrating the Medicare fraud scheme was fraudulent or deceitful acts “at the crux” of the underlying criminality, Judge Jay S. Bybee said in an opinion. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated the identity theft sentence and remanded the case ...