Claims - December 2011

The school district paid out $57,000 in medical care for Sten-
roos. However, he gave police conflicting stories about the in-
cident, and avoided investigators who wanted to question him.
Stenroos faces up to five years when sentenced.
An Explosive Scheme

The house blew up in a seething fireball, engulfing the hired torch whose amateurish attempt to help the owners launch an insurance arson ended in his fiery death. Victor and Olga Barriere wanted to get rid of their Long Beach, Calif. home. The rundown building was besieged by code violations. The Barrieres also were stuck with a $315,000 mortgage and rickety home nobody wanted to buy. Fed up, they hired handyman Thomas Trucios to finish off the place.

But Trucios spread dangerously large amounts of gasoline
around. The fumes reached critical mass and exploded when he
tried to light the fire. Trucios never had a chance. He had third-
degree burns over 95 percent of his body, and died in the hospital.
Victor received 14 years and four months in state prison, while
Olga received six years.

Fake Deaths, Real Fraud

Bridgette Buckner received 10 years in state prison for stealing life-insurance money by lying that her child and husband had died. The Chicago, Ill.-area woman had life policies through her employer, Hallmark Services. First she said her preschool child, Briajay, had died recently of an illness. But the youngster had actually died four years prior. Buckner gave her insurer a fake death certificate and collected $10,000 in life insurance money. Five months later, she said her hubby was shot and killed in the line of duty as an FBI agent. She filed a $15,000 death claim.

Buckner provided an investigator with vivid detail—her husband was shot in the lungs and died while awaiting surgery. But the fraud investigator was a former FBI agent. He grew suspicious because he would have heard about the husband’s death through the FBI grapevine. Nor did Buckner place an obituary, and officials couldn’t even locate a burial plot. Her hubby never was an FBI agent and was quite alive. The couple was estranged, and he was unaware of the plot. Buckner skipped out on bail and lived as a fugitive before turning herself in.

BRIDGETTE BUCKNER

Night of the Undead

How sad that Jim Davis died of a heart attack. He had a proper funeral, and was laid to rest for eternity in a Los Angeles, Calif. cemetery. But Davis didn’t die. In fact, he didn’t exist. A fraud ring with mortuary worker Jean Crump among the lead players tried

Cover Story

to steal $1.2 million in life insurance money by forging death certificates, buying a burial plot, staging a funeral, and burying an elaborate but empty casket. The gang even hired fake mourners to attend the service in case anyone was watching.

When insurers started getting nosy, a panicky Crump and her sidekick dug up the casket, and filled it with cow parts and a mannequin so mortuary workers wouldn’t get suspicious when carrying it. The pair then had “Davis” and the casket cremated. Next, they filed fake documents stating the remains were cremated and buried at sea. Crump and her crony bribed a doctor with $50,000 to create fake medical records to support the phony death.

Another plotter lied to insurers that she was Davis’ niece and
the beneficiary of the policies. Crump now awaits sentencing.
Diagnosis: Fraud

Carlos Quijada made a living posing as a physician. The Hawthorne, N.J. man fraudulently charged Medicaid more than $9 million in drugs in just one year. Quijada and another make-believe doc at the clinic owned by Yousuf Masood saw more than 20,000 patients.

Quijada got his start by posting an
ad on Craigslist, seeking employment. Masood—a real doctor—
offered him the job.
He told Quijada to treat and diagnose patients, and prescribe
them meds. Quijada introduced himself to patients as “Dr. Qui-
jada.” The prolific Medicaid billings were made to look as if
Masood had treated the patients himself.

Masood gave his two deceptive “docs” pre-signed, blank prescription pads. The penurious pair provided patients with meds for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, insomnia, and other illnesses. As many as 100 patients visited the clinic each day. Masood often wasn’t in the office or was in another room watching TV while his phony docs rang up insurance bills. “Dr. Quijada” faces up to 10 years in federal prison when sentenced.

Deadly Dessert
Tami Duvall poisoned her es-
tranged husband, Alan, for a $100,000
life policy she had bought just a month
before he died.

The Columbus, Ind.-area woman slipped morphine and muscle relaxants into his dessert of whipped cream and crushed chocolate cookies. Duvall called 911 the next morning, saying she found Alan dead on their back porch. He drank himself to