More on a breach reported earlier in the week involving Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale:
A criminal complaint was filed this week against five people who are accused of stealing patient information from Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale and a physician’s office in Aventura.
Albert Anthony Andrulonis, 26, of Davie, Raushanah Bowleg, 33, of Opa Locka , Mildred Alexis, 42, of Miramar, Natashi Orr, 36, of North Miami, and Jimmy Lee Theodore, 27, of Pembroke Pines were charged in federal court. Defendant Jimmy Lee Theodore remains at large.
More specifically, the complaint charges the defendants with conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information. If convicted of the mail, wire, and bank fraud charges, the defendants face a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years on each count. In addition, the defendants face a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison on each count of wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information.
According to the complaint unsealed on Wednesday, the defendants conspired to steal patient information from the Emergency Room at HCH and from a doctor’s office. The defendants then allegedly sold the patients’ information to others, who used the information to fraudulently obtain credit cards and bank accounts in the names of the patients.
According to the affidavit filed in support of the complaint, defendant Alexis recruited and paid an HCH employee, identified in the complaint as ORR, to steal HCH Emergency Room patient information. Alexis also recruited and paid defendant Bowleg, who was employed at a doctors office in Aventura, to steal patient information from his job. The patient information was then transferred to defendants Andrulonis and Theodore, who used it to open bank accounts and to obtain debit and credit cards in the patients’ names, effectively stealing their identities.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida