Former Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services Employee Sentenced for Wire Fraud and Identity Theft

A Frankfort woman, Brittany Joyce May, 35, has been sentenced to 36 months in prison, by U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove, for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

According to her plea agreement, between July 2021 and May 2023, May was employed as an administrative specialist at the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS).  As part of her duties, May initiated payments to providers who were eligible to receive the funding under certain adoption and foster programs. To do so, May input providers personal identifying information and banking information into the computer resource directory.  To receive payments under these programs, providers submitted required paperwork to CHFS. Upon receiving the paperwork, May initiated payments, via a wire transfer, to the provider’s bank account. However, if providers did not submit the required paperwork or stopped receiving payments because their services had expired, May directed the funds that would have been paid to the providers to four bank accounts that she owned and controlled.

To conceal her actions, May submitted false invoices to make it appear as if the provider requested payment.  Knowing the system automatically sent notifications to the providers’ listed address indicating a payment had been made, May changed the providers’ addresses to new addresses not associated with them.  From July 2021 to May 2023, May used the names and/or social security numbers of 45 providers in the computer resource directory to operate her scheme, and she further opened bank accounts using the personal identifying information of two providers.

In total, May misappropriated $444,663.77 in funds and initiated more than 540 fraudulent wire transfers to bank accounts she owned and controlled.           
Under federal law, May must serve 85 percent of her prison sentence; and upon her release from prison, she will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for three years.

Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Karen Wingerd, Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Division; and Lesley Allison, Special Agent in Charge, United States Postal Inspection Service, Pittsburgh Field Division, jointly announced the sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the IRS and U.S. Postal Inspection Service.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Mattingly Williams prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.