West Va. Woman Pleads to $1M Benefits Embezzlement

April 27, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Federal authorities announced Monday that Andrea Mills pled guilty to embezzling and converting over $1.1 million in premiums from employee welfare benefit plans.

According to a federal news release, Mills, 49, of Huntington, West Virginia, entered the plea before United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

The news release said Mills was the owner and operator of Allied Benefit Administrators, Inc., an independent third party employer health benefit claims administrator, which contracted with various businesses to administer their partially self-funded employee health care benefit plans.

Authorities said Allied Benefits was required to obtain and maintain reinsurance contracts for the plans. However, Mills admitted to converting more than $1.1 million of the reinsurance premiums collected from her clients to her own use and to the use of Allied Benefits from March 2006 to January 2008.

As a result, clients sustained losses in excess of $2 million in health claims which should have been covered by reinsurance but were not.

Mills is scheduled to be sentenced on August 10, 2009. She faces a five year term of imprisonment, a fine and an order of restitution for any losses.

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