SAN ANTONIO – A Central Texas woman was found guilty of fraud after she lied about her’s husband’s disability from his time in the U.S. Army, according to federal officials.
Josephine Casandra Perez-Gorda, 39, of Dripping Springs, was convicted by a federal jury in San Antonio on Tuesday, a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office states.
Authorities said from October 2011 to August 2017, she overstated the severity of her husband’s disability and defrauded the Veteran’s Administration and the Social Security Administration of more than $300,000.
Perez-Gorda and her husband, a U.S. Army veteran, claimed that he was paralyzed from the waist down due to an injury from active duty.
“The ruse included applying for and receiving a specially equipped vehicle, a specially adapted home and additional compensation based on his disability rating,” the release states.
Authorities said the nonprofit organization Homes For Our Troops gifted the couple the specially adapted home in Dripping Springs in December 2013. An investigation began when the man was seen walking around the neighborhood and playing basketball.
The release states that VA investigators filmed him walking around without assistance. He has since passed away.
Perez-Gorda, authorities said, helped the fraud by completing the necessary VA and SSA paperwork.
She was found guilty of 11 counts of wire fraud; one count of mail fraud; one count of health care fraud; three counts of false statements related to a healthcare matter; one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud; and one count of theft of government funds, the release states.
She is scheduled to be sentenced in December.
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