A former National Football League football player and a claims adjuster who worked in Sacramento are accused of participating in a $1.5 million scheme to defraud a Sacramento business that managed workers’ compensation claims.
A federal grand jury in Sacramento has indicted Marcus Buckley, 42, of Weatherford,Texas, and Kimberly Jones, a former West Sacramento resident now living in Wichita, Kan., in the alleged scheme, the U.S. Justice Department announced Friday.
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Both were charged with five counts of wire fraud, and Buckley was charged with six counts of money laundering.
According to the indictment, Buckley played in the National Football League between 1993 and 2000 for the New York Giants.
During that period, the Giants had workers’ compensation coverage through Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association Insurance Group.
From September 2001 through August 2011, Jones was a senior claims representative, or claims adjuster, in the Sacramento office of Gallagher Bassett Services Inc., according to the indictment. The firm was a third-party administrator that managed, among other things, workers’ compensation claims in California on behalf of Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association.
According to the indictment, between September 2010 and June 2011, Buckley and Jones allegedly devised and participated in a scheme to defraud Gallagher Bassett of more than $1.5 million in connection with the disability-related insurance payments.
In 2006, Buckley filed a workers’ compensation claim against the Giants for cumulative stress injuries sustained while playing football, in part in California. During the first week of November 2010, Buckley, the Giants and the insurance group settled Buckley’s claim for $300,000.
After his claim had been settled, Buckley, between late 2010 and June 2011, allegedly prepared false and fictitious invoices and statements from medical providers for medical services purportedly provided to him from 1999 through 2003. He also is accused of preparing false credit collection notices from collection agencies purportedly seeking payment for past-due medical bills, with services dates from 1999 through 2010.
Buckley allegedly sent the false invoices, statements and credit collection letters to Jones, who had Gallagher Bassett make checks payable to Buckley. In all, authorities allege that Buckley received more than $1,588,000 to which he was not entitled and used the money for various personal expenses.
Jones made her initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for Kansas, in Wichita, and was released on $25,000 bond. She was ordered to appear May 3 for arraignment in Sacramento before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kendall J. Newman.
Buckley is expected to make his initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the North District of Texas within the next two weeks.
The case resulted from an investigation by the FBI and the criminal investigation division of the Internal Revenue Service.
