Ex-medical aide admits using patients’ files to open fraudulent accounts.
She pleads guilty to taking data, opening lines of credit
A former medical assistant at a Little Rock dermatology clinic admitted Wednesday that she used confidential information in 13 patients’ medical files to open fraudulent lines of credit and go on an online Christmas shopping spree at the patients’ expense.
Mesha White, 34, of Little Rock was facing a 14-count federal indictment handed up in April that charged her with seven counts each of misusing a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. In return for her guilty plea Wednesday to a single charge of aggravated identity theft, the remaining counts were dismissed.
The charge is punishable by a mandatory sentence of two years in prison, to be followed by up to three years of supervised release, or probation, and restitution to all the victims. A plea agreement lists the total amount of restitution at $5,745.20.
A news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer didn’t identify the dermatology clinic for which White worked, nor did the five-page indictment or plea agreement. The news release, however, said that White’s job gave her regular access to medical files that contained sensitive, confidential information about the patients, such as their dates of birth and Social Security numbers.
“Over several weeks in November and December 2012, White used this patient information to open fraudulent lines of credit through various online retailers from which she proceeded to make thousands of dollars in purchases,” the news release said. “Law enforcement subsequently linked those fraudulent transactions to the IP [Internet Protocol] address of the dermatologist’s clinic, where internal records revealed that many of the transactions had processed on dates and times when White was alone in the office.”
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, further investigation revealed that White had shipped many of the fraudulent purchases to a vacant unit in a housing complex where she once lived. A resident of the complex reported seeing White collect boxes at the door of the vacant unit and leave in a blue BMW sedan, which officers traced to White’s mother, according to the news release.
According to the indictment, the transactions occurred in the weeks before Christmas, beginning Nov. 25, 2012, and involved purchases at J.C. Penney, Nordstrom, Fingerhut and Gettington.com. The plea agreement states that restitution must be made to Comenity Bank in Ohio, Bluestem in Minnesota, Stoneberry and Swiss Colony, both in Wisconsin.
White entered her guilty plea alongside defense attorney Ron Davis before U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright, who will schedule sentencing after the completion of a pre-sentence investigation.
The case was investigated by Special Agents Chad Yielding and John Stump of the U.S. Secret Service and detectives Karen Farley and Linda Hudson of the Little Rock Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Morgan.