Former federal employee in Kentucky admits padding mileage claims by nearly $75,000.
A former federal employee in Kentucky has admitted padding mileage reports to get nearly $75,000 in reimbursements he didn’t deserve.
Jeffery Kendrick pleaded guilty in federal court in Lexington Thursday to three charges of mail fraud.
Kendrick was entitled to benefits as a disabled former nurse for the federal Bureau of Prisons, according to his plea agreement.
The benefits included reimbursement for mileage of round trips up to 100 miles to medical appointments and to pick up medication.
Between January 2010 and June 2019, Kendrick submitted hundreds of claims that either inflated the number of miles he had driven or sought pay for trips he didn’t really take, according to his plea deal.
In July 2016, for instance, he filed claims for three trips to Baptist Health Lexington, claiming a round trip of 97 miles each time, but the trips were actually only 24 miles each.
In June 2017, he filed claims seeking mileage for three round trips of 96 miles each to Quest Diagnostics, a testing lab, when the trips were really 30 miles each, according to the court record.
Kendrick’s plea listed nearly 500 trips he said he took between 2020 and 2019, but only 115 were confirmed.
He didn’t take any trips in 2018 that justified reimbursement, but filed claims for 54, for instance, according to the document.
The charge includes a judgment against Kendrick of $74,787, to be repaid to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The maximum penalty for Kendrick would be 20 years, but the sentence is likely to by much lower under advisory sentencing guidelines.
Chief U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves scheduled sentencing in October.
This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 8:11 AM.
