Bothell, WA dental office manager Josie Morey convicted of steal from practice including cash, insurance thefts; 9 months of house arrest

Update April 2018: Josie Morey, a former Bothell, Washington dental office employee, will serve nine months of home confinement for felony theft charges, and three Washington drivers were sentenced in pay-as-you-crash scams after investigations by Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s Criminal Investigations Unit (CIU).

Josie Morey pled guilty

Josie Morey, 51, of Mukilteo, pleaded guilty to one count each of first-degree theft and second-degree theft, both felonies, in King County Superior Court. She will serve nine months of electronic home monitoring, pay $600 in court fees and is ordered to have no contact with her victims for 10 years. A restitution hearing will occur at a later date. Josie Morey filed false insurance claims and illegally collected unemployment insurance while she worked for a Bothell dentist from May 2011 until November 2013. The investigation identified $4,400 in client payments that Morey misappropriated and $1,700 in charges to Washington Dental Service on behalf of one patient for treatments the dentist did not provide, which depleted the patient’s yearly benefit amount. In addition, the state Employment Security Department found that Morey fraudulently collected more than $32,000 in unemployment benefits for 59 weeks while she was working at the dental clinic. Read  ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Original story: OLYMPIA, Wash. – Josie Morey, 50, of Mukilteo, was charged in King County Superior Court with one count of first-degree theft and two counts of second-degree theft in connection with false insurance claims and illegally collecting unemployment insurance payments while she was employed by a Bothell dentist. All three felony charges followed an investigation by Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU). According to the investigation, Morey worked for a dental clinic from May 2011 until November 2013. During her employment, suspicious billing transactions led to a criminal investigation that identified $4,400 in stolen client payments. The investigation also revealed multiple charges to Washington Dental Service on behalf of one patient for treatments the dentist did not provide. The unnecessary billings totaled $1,700 and depleted the patient’s yearly benefit amount. “Insurance fraud may seem like a victimless crime that’s easy to get away with, but that is simply not the case,” said Kreidler. “I commend the dentist for reporting the theft to law enforcement and encourage anyone who knows about theft of insurance payments to report it to my office.”