A New York woman who used fake hospital records to pose as a Boston Marathon victim and who claimed $480,000 from a support fund for victims has been arrested.
Audrea Gause was arrested last Friday on a Massachusetts fugitive warrant charging her with larceny said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.
The 26 year old woman submitted a claim to the fund One Fund Boston said the attorney.
According to the attorney, she allegedly sent several pages of fake medical records saying that she was treated at two hospitals for brain injury and “experienced long-term memory loss, impaired speech, and loss of some motor function that would require future surgery.”
Gause received a $480,000 cheque from the fund who approved her claim.
“There is no evidence that Ms. Gause was an actual victim of the bombing,” said Coakley at a news conference.
She said that the authorities got a tip last week that Gause may not have been in Boston on the day of the marathon, and also said that the hospitals later revealed that they didn’t in fact treat her.
The One Fund was created after the tragic bombing and has raised more than $64 million for victims.
The Attorney General said that the accused will be arraigned on the fugitive warrant in New York. She’ll be brought to Boston if she waives extradition. Gause will also face a charge of larceny.
The Boston Marathon bombings claimed the lives of three people and injured 260, many lost limbs.
