The former senior director of Pittsburgh-based UPMC Health Plan pleaded guilty Friday to embezzling $846,000 from UPMC by putting ghost workers on the payroll, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Ronald Locy, 48, was charged in November with embezzlement in connection with healthcare after the FBI launched an investigation. According to prosecutors, Mr. Locy put his wife Tracy on UPMC Health Plan's payroll in 2005. Although she performed no work for the insurer, the company paid her $785,145 in wages and bonuses between 2005 and 2013.
Prosecutors further allege Mr. Locy arranged for another ghost employee to be placed on UPMC Health Plan's payroll. That individual was paid $61,000, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Mr. Locy is scheduled to be sentenced in May.
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