OCT 22, 2020

Florence Ringleader Guilty of Insurance Fraud

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) –  Oct. 22, 2020 - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announces that Renara Jessica Burgess, 33, of Florence, S.C., entered a plea of guilty on October 15, 2020 on insurance fraud charges. Burgess pleaded guilty to two counts of Presenting a False Claim for Payment Greater than $10,000.  

 

The Honorable Michael G. Nettles accepted the plea. In exchange for her guilty plea, Burgess was sentenced to 10 years, suspended upon 90 days in jail, plus five years of probation, and held responsible for $60,000 in restitution of claims she filed on her own behalf.

 

This case involved a ring of fraudulent criminal activity with over 20 people altering medical bills and subsequently submitting false claims to insurance companies from September 2013 to July 2015. With Burgess serving as the ringleader, over $400,000 of claims were made, and nearly $300,000 of those were paid by the insurance companies. Investigators state Burgess altered her own family’s medical bills, as well as recruited and directed others to alter their medical bills for submission as well.

 

Insurance Fraud investigators with SLED led this investigation and, along with the Attorney General’s Office prosecution team, found Burgess responsible for $296,250.91 of restitution, joint & several, with her other co-defendants. 

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