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Woman Ordered To Pay More Than $31K For Multiple Counts Of Welfare, Medi-Cal Fraud

EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS13) — An El Dorado County woman was ordered to pay more than $31,000 in restitution to the state after pleading no contest to multiple counts of felony welfare fraud.

According to the El Dorado District Attorney's Office, Maegen Abbott repeatedly gave the Department of Health and Human Services false information when applying for food stamps, cash aid, and Medi-Cal for herself and her five children. She signed multiple documents "under penalty of perjury" claiming to have no income or support.

Abbott falsely claiming her husband and the father of her children had been deported. DA's office said her husband actually lived with her and earned approximately $6,400 a month.

READ: Sheriff's Office: Federal Prosecutor Kills Wife, Himself In Granite Bay

Two cases were filed against Abbott and she pled no contest to both. In the first, filed last August, Abbott was charged with felony welfare fraud involving food stamps and cash aid, perjury, and shoplifting from Walmart. In the second case, filed in January, Abbott was charged with violating the welfare code and providing false statements to receive health care.

She was sentenced to 270 days in jail, four years of formal probations, and ordered to pay $31,000 in restitution to the California Department of Healthcare Services and the California Department of Health and Human Services.

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