HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett announced that agents from the Attorney General’s Insurance Fraud Section have filed criminal charges against two sisters accused of switching identities to secure nearly $30,000 in medical insurance coverage for a surgical procedure performed at a Philadelphia hospital.
Corbett identified the defendants as Tirhas Mekonnen, 26, of Wilmington, Delaware, along with her sister Woinshet Mekonnen, 34, of Ethiopia.
Tirhas Mekonnen
Woinshet Mekonnen
Corbett said that Tirhas Mekonnen allowed her sister, Woinshet, to use her medical insurance identification cards in order to have a surgical procedure performed in Philadelphia. The sisters conspired to switch identities in the belief that the medical insurance system could be easily manipulated, and also because Woinshet Mekonnen preferred to have the surgery performed in the U.S. rather than in Ethiopia.
“Insurance fraud schemes, including medical ID Theft, ultimately take money out of the pockets of every Pennsylvania resident, boosting insurance premiums for employers and employees alike,” Corbett said. “Fraudulent claims are a driving force behind the increased cost of health insurance and the Attorney General’s Insurance Fraud Section is committed to identifying and prosecuting the individuals who orchestrate these scams.”
According to the criminal complaint, Woinshet Mekonnen utilized her sisters’ insurance to cover all of her
medical expenses incurred during and after the surgery, ultimately resulting in a bill of in excess of $29,000 being submitted to Blue/Cross and Blue Shield by Northeastern Hospital in Philadelphia. Multiple doctors and home health care workers treated Woinshet Mekonnen, holding herself out as her sister.
The defendants are each charged with two counts of insurance fraud, one count of conspiracy, and one count of theft by deception, all third-degree felonies which are each punishable by up to seven years in prison and $15,000 fines.
Tirhas Mekonnen and Woinshet Mekonnen were both arrested in Wilmington, Delaware by officers from the Wilmington Police Department, who assisted the Attorney General’s Insurance Fraud Section. Both defendants are currently free on $10,000 cash bail, awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania. An extradition hearing is scheduled for March 24, 2008, in Wilmington.
The case will be prosecuted in Philadelphia County by Senior Deputy Attorney General Gregg Shore of the Attorney General’s Insurance Fraud Section.
Corbett thanked the Wilmington Delaware Police Department and the Delaware Department of Insurance, Fraud Prevention Bureau, for their cooperation and assistance with this investigation.
31 thoughts on “PA attorney general charges two Ethiopian sisters of ID fraud”
አቶ ኤልያስ! ምነው ወዳጄ እንተዛዘን እንጂ፡-
እነኚህ እህትማማቾች እኮ ይህንን እርምጃ ለመውሰድ የተገደዱት የሞትና የሕይወት ጉዳይ ሆኖባቸው ነው፤ ፎቶግራፋቸውን ማውጣትህ በጣም ትልቅ ስህተት ነውና ባክህን ቶሎ ብለህ አንሳው።
Well this is a good lesson for all of us who think we can get away with ……joro yaleh smma…
Poor girls who could not afford medical care. The only crime is one of the sisters was poor, sick and immigrant. Who wouldn’t do or risk what they did to save the life of ones sister?
This is so traggic news!
But, most traggic is what ER has done to them-breaching their legal right not to be exposed in person. I am sure the US polic personnels, the court or any institution would not explicitly expose their pictures as they are protected by the law. Why would Elias do this? one would ask, why would he be interested to reveal the pictures of two poor and helpless Ethiopian girls who would probably have committed an “innocent crime”? Innocent in the sense that it is life-saving action.
The answer to this question is apparently obvious for one who lived the so called DERGUE ERA in Ethiopia where traditional Ethiopian ethinic names have been used as a means of identifiying the “enemies”. Elias is yet in that era! This exposes him a bit further as one of the reminant of the DERGUE! One however wonders if Elias is correct in identifying his enemies this time arround as cross-using of the same name is common in todays Ethiopia?
We shall see where this will take Elias and co.
———————
Ariam, go to this link to see the source of the news.
http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/press.aspx?id=3435
To save a life, one desperate person can do many risky things, and I hope the judge will be sympathetic to these two desperate and loving Ethiopian sisters. They may not know it is illegal to give one’s insurance card to one’s own sister to use it to save a sister’s life. They may have thought that the insurance card is like a credit card. May God help them to get out of this problem! Ethiopians by far are the most law abiding and hard working citizens. What the two sisters did should not be taken as a criminal act rather than as a life-saving act.
Please Elias Befetari sim foto ansalachew! beka hunol eko.
this kids do it due to lack of better choice! People commit more crimes than this.they are wonderfully similar and beautiful twins. Please all ethiopians help this kids get out of the problem
egziabher yirdachihu.
Its really sad.
Though fraud is not a good practice, the lady in the US took this drastic measure to help her sick sister in Ethiopia. I applaud her. It is the same as mr Quincy who held hostage the Hospital Administrator and got a heart surgery for his son. The father was willing to go to jail for his son sake.
I think the PA state court should look into consideration this actions of the two sisters were taken to SAVE LIFE. They didn’t do it to enrich themselves …..
My medical insurance company has increased my medical premium from 44 to 270$. It is the medical insuracance company CEOS that the PA Attorney general should have gobe after for suckking the blood of hard working americans to get a ;large profit. The Oil industry are making tens of billion of dollars, when gaz price is near 4$ a gallon. This is a high teck robbery. The PA Atterney General should have more focused on these CEOs …Not poor people who tried to make ends meet and save their life.
Tazabi.
Hi there,
Ethiopian community/ society in Pennsylvania and in other states has to fight for this honest and life saving mistake. Ethiopian lawyers in Pennsylvania and also who lives in other states get together and try to see some loop holes to save them.
If petition is needed, I politely ask the host of Ethiopian Review to organized and help Ethiopian sisters on this matter.
Now Ethiopian accross focus on solution how to get sisters free or get the very least fine.
We all know that the motive behind is saving her sister life by overcoming financial problem that is why I said “honest mistake” to help others.
Abdul
Toronto
No problem of posting the photos.We ethiopians are not want to face the truth…that’s what creat a problem in our society.we have to say Akafa is Akafa and Leba is Leba.
This is an immigrant story in USA.Nothing new.Considering the horrible medical care in Ethiopia,the sisters’s other option was to go to Ethiopia to be present on her sister’s funeral.This is the ulitimate love a sister gives to a sister-LIFE.As for breaking the law,let us Ethiopians provide whatever needed for their freedom.
I really appreciate Elias for bringing the issue forward to our attention. it has two sides, 1st. it gives us warning to refrain ourselves from such mistakes 2nd. it leads us to the right direction to find means to help our sisters.
one question for Elias- is there any way you can coordinate with Ethiopian lawyers or experts in the field to find any means to help them at least in minimizing the prison time and a dollar contribution might help, can it be organized?
this is the time for all offices of Ethiopian Communities and churches to take the lead and the forum for solution. the mistake is once done and the girls are on their way to the prison. let us stop accusing each other and help.
thank you Elias
Yigermal
03.24.2008.
I know it is a sad story 2 here but each of us made a mistake in some way some where we all knew that what i am talking about but the reason why we do that is just 2 change our life and 2 help our poor family so please all of us should realize this and find a solution instead of accusing each other don’t get me wrong when i said this i am not trying to compromise the situation but let their mistake teach them and as ethipian let us help them by what we can thank you and i wish good 4 my 2 ethiopian sisters.
I think Elias did what a true reporter does. He did not CREATE the news. He simply reported it. The bottom line is if he was going to keep it “secret”, he would do the same crime that he professes he is against (aka Weyane style). Besides, the Jeanie was out of the bottle by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office anyway.
Honesty is always the best policy, but for one of the sisters above it became unaffordable luxury and she did what she had to do to save her sister’s life, no matter what the consequences might be. We should all admire the courage and compassion of this young lady and help her in any way we could. Like someone mentioned above, the choice in front of the sister in the US was take the risk and save her sister’s life or buy a return ticket to Addis for her funeral. We all have heard of relatives and acquaintances with botched simple procedures and operations in Black Lion Addis, deformed and/or chronically disabled for life or those who lost their lives unnecessarily.
Please understand that I am not trying to malign the heroic efforts of the medical professionals in Ethiopia, who are doing their best under very difficult circumstances. On one hand they have to deal with a crumbling healthcare infrastructure, lack of basic equipment and supplies and on the other hand they have to put up with a cynical ruling elite that thinks it needs the best healthcare that money can buy in Johannesburg, Tel Aviv, Frankfurt, London and Boston for itself and dressers, nurses and ‘wegeshas’ should be adequate for the common folks.
I still think that putting their pictures on the ER site is a big mistake. It is bad enough that the PA General Attorney thought it is the best use of his time and limited public resources to prosecute these two poor immigrant girls from Africa and publicize the fact as a great accomplishment of his office. But for ER to publish their picture on a website that is mostly frequented by Ethiopians is like trying to shame them all over again among their friends, families and acquaintance. I strongly urge ER to take off their pictures from this site and engage in something rather constructive, like organizing an online fundraising mechanism that could be used towards their legal defense fund as well as pay off whatever penalty the judge might impose on the siblings.
It clearly looks like a concious act on the part of the card holder, who knowingly allowed her sister to use her insurance.
This act, no matter what the circumstances may be, is inreprehensible, and should be condemned. We can not allow our honesty and integrity to be compromised by the action of few irrational individuals who commit a crime. There are a host of Ethiopians as well as other minority groups here in the US including the many of the Majority ethnic group can not and will not be able to afford to get medical coverage leave alone for our guests coming from Ethiopia. Ethiopians living in the US, no matter where the location may be, are very genrous in assisting their fellow Ethiopians during difficult times, financially as well as emotionally. While helping the sisters through these difficult times is essential, provided this is their first criminal encounter, condemening the act by all law abiding citizens living any where and everywhere is paramount.
These to girls come from a very rich family in Ethiopia. Woinshet herself owns stores in Addis Ababa.
That what I call the Ethiopian family
1.Believe me I will do what it takes to save my family.
2.Let get to the point .is it crime to save your sister for death?
3.Let us approach the prosecutor explain what real happen with out lie.
4.we must demonstrate it is honest mistake to save sis life
5.let US(Ethiopians) pay back the maney soon.
666.Please ER don’t exaggerate simple thing
7.please let us have the info,how we can help.
Lesson to learn:
Please stop for been sorry. We have developed a culture that acting ignorant is nice. We all now it is illegal and they have to pay the price for doing it. Why would i pay extra premium for someones illegal activities. Why do we always support illegal activities and make excuess for them. I have heard this story again and again and it is time that the Ethiopian community learn and understand USA law. Things have become more series thanks to 911 and we as a resident of USA must follow the trend and rules. Elias has done nothing and the image for both sisters are available for a public. Ariam “pls go and read what the law says” U are only protected if u are under-age and a rape victim. Criminals are not protected and anything that goes inside gov building is a public record. So – stop the non sense and go and read. sam
This is indeed a sad story, if one did commit the crime just to help an ailing sister. It is a fraud and should vehemently disavowed by everyone. In the meantime, we should take a sombre look at this and lend our hands for the one who was sick. I ask Mr. Elias to use his good office and launch a fund raising campaign to help these two sisters. This website and its editors should discuss the matter to Ethiopian lawyers who can work with the courts to make the sentence as light as possible. If she had done this just to save her dying sister, my heart goes out to her. I am very very sad now.
Is there any way ER can coordinate a fund raising to help thses Ethiopians. A medical problem should be looked at it different. If you can afford it do not do it if you can not afford it try the est. Let us help them
Haile
I am shocked to see ER and Ethiomedia posted the poor sister pictures. There are several shameful schemes most immigrants do to cheat the system. Like hiding income to get various benefits. I call this as unwise scheme, which was done to save the life of a sister. I am not saying that I am proud of the girl who will lose everything to save her sister life, but she doesn’t deserve humuliation by her own community. Like haile said, we should find a way to help them.
very sad but justice had to be made
Elias
I think showing us the photograph is unnecessary and doing it is irresponsible. If you have the will you can help them by removing their photograph from your site take your time and think if they were my sisters.
If that is what it takes to save my sister’s life, I wouldn’t hesitate to do the same thing. I will be able to get out of these mess one day, but I won’t be able to replace my sister’s life ever. I rather want to die as whole than having surgery back home.
I know there is thousand of people are using the same kind of system to get some kind of medical attention… the PA attorney general has to make some kind of name for him self . That is why this two sisters are in the news.Leulum Alemekedem New..
I read few of the comments above. some of you even accusing the editor. What did he do wrong??? He is only letting us know what has been published elsewhere. He is only doing his job.
I feel sorry for the girls to be in this situation.
We all should know that what they did is illegal. Period!! Unfair on those of us who are obeying the law. stop making excuses. You either follow the law or not. ther is only one law for everyone. if you don’t follow it you face the consequence. As simple as that!
I jus have two comments:
The first is for those who accuse Elias of showing the pictures of the sisters. If I am not mistaken, Elias did not go to the scene to take the pictures to post them here. It is my guess the source of the news is another medium (along with the pictures) and I don’t really know what you want Elias to do about it. This Can only be a result of sheer ignorance-not knowing much about IT.
The second comment is for those who support crime in the name of saving life. This can be taken as an excuse only if the two sisters have no money to pay for the treatment. Someone just told us that the patient herself owns a store in Addis Ababa, and I don’t even believe that the younger sister who lives in the states lacks this amount of money. Granted that they have enough money (at least to pool from the two sources), the only reason they did this is because of greediness. You should know that somebody else is losing money while they are gaining-a zero-sum game. This is as much a vice as stealing money from someone’s pocket!
some people make me think odd. it is not Elias who did that. the two sisters are going to prison and that is the worest thing but some still think the photo in this site is a big deal. Very funny how people think. the photo explains a lot of thing about the situation. No one cannot escape doing such a mistake,the sisters look alike very much but they cannot do it and that is the message of the picture. i admire the risk the sisters take to save life.this is the result of the poor health care system in America. We ,Ethiopians are honest people but we are not perfect too. Guys don’t worry about the photo just worry about the time they are going to spend in prison.
I am sorry for the sisters and I admire their sacrify for one another. I hope the sister whose insurance card used will be saved by the other sister but they need a strong lawyer.
Dear Elias, good job as usual!! please let people know how they can use the system when they get sick (need surgery)legally if they are out of money at that time??I think there is a way out like going emergency and get the bill later or something else….
ሱቅ እና ፓርኪንግ ሰርቆ ከመያዝ የእህቶን ነፍሥ ዐድና መታሰር ጥሩ ነው
atfred yefrdbhal we all made mistake and WWJD (what would jesus do ) if this girls where standing infront of him please lets go and let God take care of my sisters we if can do somthing that will be great but ohh we are ethiopians.we didnt learn action I said “WE” cause we are in this togther