March 6, 2014

Prosecutors: Woman faked cancer to feed gambling addiction

Julie Ann Dahlquist

 

AUBURN, Wash. —

A 52-year old Auburn woman was sentenced to prison Thursday for a fraud scheme in which she claimed to be a cancer patient to get money from a senior citizen.

Julie Ann Dahlquist was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of supervised release.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, between May 2009 and Sept. 2012, Dahlquist convinced an Auburn man to financially support her by claiming the money he gave her would pay for her cancer treatment.

Authorities said Dahlquist did not have cancer and used more than $400,000 to support her gambling addiction.

On Nov. 15, she pleaded guilty to Social Security fraud.

During her sentencing, U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez ordered her to pay $417,382 in restitution and said the crime was “no less than elder abuse – taking advantage of the victim’s good nature to steal his money.”

According to records filed in the case, Dahlquist told the victim that she had been diagnosed with cancer and had no medical insurance or any money for treatment.

The concerned victim wrote checks for as much as $9,000 about three times a month to pay for Dahlquist’s treatment. In all, the victim wrote 190 checks to Dahlquist for more than $400,000.
Prosecutors said Dahlquist used the money for gambling and other expenses and also defrauded the Social Security Administration disability program by concealing the $400,000 in proceeds from her fraud scheme so that she could collect $8,000 in Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. She also fraudulently collected more than $8,000 in food and medical benefits from the State of Washington.

Writing to the court, prosecutors said, “This is a truly outrageous fraud that involved exploiting an elderly retiree’s trust and generous intentions. Julie Dahlquist recognized that (the victim) was a trusting and generous person, and because of those qualities she chose to prey on him. Furthermore, defendant invoked the serious disease of cancer as part of her fraud. The psychological harm to the victim is acute: his family reports that he is ‘devastated to think that someone he was trying to help would take such extreme advantage of him’.”

http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/prosecutors-woman-faked-cancer-feed-gambling-addic/nd7CH/