A Queens mom with a million dollars in her bank account was charged on Thursday for allegedly swindling $67,000 in Medicaid benefits with a phony tale of woe, prosecutors said.
Galit Levi, 37, of 82nd Avenue in Hollis Hills allegedly falsified applications for Medicaid assistance between January 2012 and December 2015. The mother of four purportedly claimed that she was unemployed and her husband only earned $1,750 per month, which made her family eligible to receive Medicaid assistance.
However, investigators with the State Welfare Inspector General’s office found that Levi and her husband had actually deposited more than $1.13 million into their joint bank account between 2012 and 2016 — far above the income eligibility requirements for Medicaid.
“This defendant’s alleged crimes involved a breathtakingly misplaced sense of entitlement by reaping a very comfortable family income while utilizing benefits meant for those in need to cover her expenses, as if she were in dire financial distress,” State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott said in a Jan. 25 statement.
Levi faces charges of second-degree grand larceny and welfare fraud; first-degree falsifying business records; and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said. She was released on $5,000 bail and must return to court on Feb. 13. If convicted, Levi could spend up to 15 years behind bars.
“Medicaid is intended to help the truly needy, but [Levi’s] bank records allegedly show her family’s income was well above the levels that would have made her and her children eligible for assistance,” Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said on Jan. 25. “I would like to thank the Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott and her office — as well as investigators in my office — for uncovering this alleged scheme.”
