May 3, 2012 Contact: Whitney Ray Phone: (850) 245-0150

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. –Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office today charged Edna Iris Torres, 62, of West Palm Beach with defrauding the Florida Medicaid program out of more than $28,000. She was arrested on a felony warrant by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and is charged with grand theft and Medicaid fraud, both second-degree felonies. If convicted, she faces up to 30 years in prison and more than $20,000 in fines. She is currently being held in the Palm Beach County jail. The case is being prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.

Based on information provided by the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, the Attorney General’s Office initiated an investigation into Blessed Friends Transportation Services, Inc., a Medicaid home and community-based services provider. The investigation revealed that the defendant submitted fraudulent timesheets to make it appear as if she had provided services to Medicaid recipients. Between May 2007 and February 2011, the Agency for Health Care Administration paid more than $28,000 for these fraudulent claims.