Woman indicted on fraud charge

She is accused of filing false claims for federal food program

A former security guard at the Federal Building in Little Rock was formally indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury, accused of submitting 24 fraudulent claims to the state Department of Human Services to receive $575,917.76 in federal funds to which she wasn't entitled.

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Last month, U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer announced that Maria Carmen Nelson, 49, had been arrested on a criminal complaint charging her with wire fraud. A complaint is used to charge someone until the next federal grand jury can meet to review the charge and decide whether to hand up an indictment.

The indictment charges Nelson, 49, with one count of wire fraud conspiracy and 20 individual charges of wire fraud -- one for each of 24 fraudulent claims it says she submitted to the state agency between March 2012 and September 2014.

Nelson submitted claims as a sponsor for a feeding program that is administered by the state agency and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Nelson is the eighth person to be charged with scheming to steal federal money intended to provide food for poor children through the feeding program, one of the federal government's Child Nutrition programs.

Officially called the Child and Adult Care Feeding Program, the feeding program has an at-risk after-school component, and both private nonprofit and for-profit organizations can apply to be sponsors for that component. Thyer said Nelson was approved as a sponsor by Michael R. Lee, who was indicted in July on a wire-fraud charge related to the feeding program.

The indictment says that sponsors are required to obtain DHS approval for each site from which they intend to operate the feeding programs. It says Nelson, operating as a sponsor through an organization called Securing Our Future, set up a site at 4423 W. 11th St. in Little Rock to operate her feeding program for the 2012 fiscal year. At that address is a 1,400-square-foot house, where Nelson reported feeding between 163 to 351 children at a time, though no more than 20 children were ever seen at one time at the location, the indictment states.

It alleges that Nelson used three addresses as feeding site locations in the 2013 fiscal year. They include the 11th Street address as well as the address of 4208 Frazier Pike in Little Rock and 503 Oak St. in Malvern. The indictment alleges that while no more than 20 children were seen at one time at those locations, Nelson filed claims purporting to feed an average daily attendance of 99 to 450 children at the Frazier Pike location, 105 to 350 children at the 11th Street location and 124 children at the Malvern address.

She is also accused of submitting false claims in the 2014 fiscal year for feeding programs she said she operated at the Frazier Pike address and the Malvern address.

The indictment alleges that Nelson was terminated from participating as a sponsor in the feeding programs effective March 9 after, according to DHS records, a claim validation review found she had submitted false or altered invoices in support of a September 2014 claim, and also found she claimed reimbursement for meals that didn't meet "meal pattern requirements."

Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Metro on 10/09/2015

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