Onalaska Woman Convicted of Filing Fraudulent Insurance Claims

MADISON — Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced today that an Onalaska woman has been convicted of filing fraudulent insurance claims, a misdemeanor.

Samantha Connaughty, of 626 Meier Lane, Onalaska, appeared in La Crosse County Circuit Court today and entered a guilty plea to three counts of fraudulent insurance claims. Sentence was withheld and Connaughty was placed on two years probation. As a condition of probation, Connaughty must serve six months on electronic monitoring, maintain employment, attend financial planning education and training, pay court costs and fees, and pay $37,890.32 in restitution.

According to the Department of Justice's criminal complaint, Connaughty was employed as a Registered Nurse participating in the Medicaid-based “Nurses in Independent Practice” program and was providing in-home care to a young woman with spina bifida. Upon reviewing the Medicaid billing records for her daughter, the woman's mother discovered that between January 2009 and November 2010, Connaughty had been billing for services that had not been provided on dates that she had not been working.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Gabrysiak.

A copy of the criminal complaint is available at: