TEXAS–37-year-old Reynaldo Gonzalez, a deputy U.S. Marshal in San Antonio, is accused of collecting checks from an insurance company after submitting false claims. He is charged with six wire fraud counts and six counts of making false statements, and was recently arrested for aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, and lying to federal agents.
A 13-count federal indictment unsealed on March 5 claims that Gonzalez devised and then carried out a scheme to defraud the American Family Life Assurance Company (AFLAC).
In May 2005, the U.S. Marshal purchased an accident-only insurance plan from AFLAC. He is accused of submitting fraudulent claims to the insurance company, stating that he had been injured in various accidents and received medical care. On each claim, Gonzalez would use a physician’s signature and tax identification without consent. He allegedly did this from February 4, 2008 through March 24, 2009 and would collect benefit checks from AFLAC after each filed claim.
When federal agents initially confronted Gonzalez about the apparent fraud, he told them that the claims were honest and legitimate.
An indictment is a merely an accusation and does not serve as evidence. If Gonzalez is found guilty, he could spend 25 years in federal prison and be responsible for fines totaling up to $500,000. The FBI and the Office of the Inspector General investigated the case.
Another public officer, Joseph Romeo Ozuna, was also recently accused of corruption. As Breitbart Texas reported, Ozuna, a former Starr County probation officer was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday for 56 counts of corruption. The indictment was made public on Friday; prosecutors claim that among other wrongdoings, Ozuno stole money from his probationers, asked one probationer to have sex for money, and created multiple false documents.
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