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| | A San Diego Area Registered Nurse, Golnaz Gholipour, Gets Six Years In Jail For Workers' Compensation Fraud
By Lonce LaMon - December 29, 2014
The San Diego, California, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced in late November 2014 that a workers’ compensation fraud defendant was sentenced to six years of local custody after being convicted by a jury of 12 felony counts including perjury and insurance fraud for her role in defrauding her employer out of more than $300,000 over a seven-year period.
Golnaz Gholipour, 35, was sentenced to three years in local prison and three years of mandatory supervision. A restitution hearing will be held at a future date to determine how much she will pay in restitution to Sharp Healthcare for costs they incurred in handling her fraudulent claim. Gholipour was a nurse at Sharp Hospital who initially told her doctors in January 2007 that she injured her back while waking up from a nightmare. She first filed for state disability benefits, but after learning that the most she could receive from state disability was $4,515 based on the fact that she’d only been employed in California a few months, she filed for workers’compensation benefits.
“The defendant worked her illegal scam for seven years, defrauding Sharp HealthCare and repeatedly lying under oath at her deposition, in her workers’ compensation case and to her doctors,” District Attorney Dumanis said. “Deputy District Attorneys Alan Kessler and Kim Scott, of our Insurance Fraud Division, prosecuted this egregious case that ultimately held the defendant accountable for her scheme.”
Under workers’ compensation benefits, all of the defendant’s medical expenses were covered and she received more than $88,000 for the two years she claimed she could not work after her injury. In May 2010, after all conservative care was exhausted, Gholipour had back surgery. By April 2013, when Ghoilpour continued to claim she was worse off than before the surgery, the insurance company hired a private investigator.
The defendant was filmed on several occasions in a normal state with no apparent injuries. Only when she was going to doctor’s visits or attending legal meetings did Gholipour appear hurt and in need of a walker. At her deposition, Gholipour testified that she lived with her parents and that her mother had to bathe her and help her get dressed. She claimed to need to use the walker at all times, that she was depressed, had not gone out on any dates and was not involved in any relationships. She also said she had significant gastro-intestinal problems and generally stayed at home groggy from her medications.
After her deposition, Gholipour was filmed over an eight-hour period as she went shopping, dined at restaurants, and moved about in a normal fashion without any sign of pain or discomfort and without a walker. On another occasion, she was filmed during a 12-hour period during which she moved potted plants on her balcony, went shopping, walked several hundred yards to go to a picnic and back and went to a movie. In the videos, she was observed with the same man who is now her husband and they appeared to be living together.
After a two-week jury trial, the defendant was convicted on eight counts of perjury and four counts of insurance fraud.
“The California Department of Insurance, Sharp Healthcare, Ace American Insurance, and ESIS were instrumental in helping prosecutors achieve justice in this case,” said Dominic Dugo, Chief of the Insurance Fraud Division.
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contributors Barry Zalma, CFE, Attorney At Law; Lonce LaMon, journalist, and San Diego County District Attorney's office Press Release.
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