Valley woman gets 10 years for defrauding insurance company she worked for

PHOENIX — A Valley woman was sentenced this week to 10 years behind bars for stealing $2.5 million from the insurance company that employed her.

Jamie Leeanne Baltazar, 47, pleaded guilty to two counts of felony theft after defrauding Oxford Life Insurance Company for nearly a decade, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said in a press release on Friday.

Baltazar, working as a claims processor for the Arizona-based company, generated fraudulent claims while processing stipends for out-of-pocket medical costs to U-Hall retirees, authorities said.

She used retiree names from a master list to generate the fraudulent medical claims and have checks printed, which Baltazar subsequently rerouted to her home address, according to the release.

Baltazar conducted the scheme between 2011 and 2019, stealing an average of $25,000 a month during that time period, authorities said.

“This individual took advantage of her position and her access to substantial sums of other people’s money over an eight-year period,” County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in the release.

“We are thankful to those who discovered her actions and came forward so that justice may be served.”

Baltazar was also ordered to pay more than $2.5 million in restitution and her prison term will be followed by five years of probation, according to the release.

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