You may recall, back in July 2013, a New York woman named Andrea Gause was caught trying to siphon money raised for the Boston Marathon bombing victims, survivors and families. She was subsequently arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court and held on $200,000 bail. On Tuesday, though, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office announced Gause has been sentenced to two-and-a-half to three years in state prison.
Gause was caught trying to collect a fraudulent $480,000 claim from The One Fund Boston – a major fundraiser for those most in need of relief in the wake of the tragic incident over one year ago – in the same week Rolling Stone published its controversial cover of alleged Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to the chagrin of pretty much anyone who’s not a conspiracy theorist.
The 27-year old woman pleaded guilty to the charge of Larceny over $250, and received a lighter sentence than was recommended by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Attorney General Martha Coakley and her office suggested Gause be subjected to four to five years in state prison. The maximum sentence for Gause’s charge is five years.
“It is disturbing that this defendant would attempt to steal from the real victims of the Marathon bombing through fraud and deceit,” AG Coakley said in a statement. “As a result of our investigation, we recovered all of the money and it is now being returned to The One Fund Boston. This defendant will now serve time in state prison for her actions.”
Gause came into the almost half million dollars by filing with The One Fund that she sustained brain damage due to the bombings and was hospitalized at Boston Medical Center for two days, then for another ten days at Albany Medical Center near her native Troy, N.Y. Through false medical records, her claim was approved.
She then turned around and spent $377,500 on a downpayment for a new house.
An investigation by the AG’s office, though, determined that Gause wasn’t even in Boston during the infamous incident, let alone a patient at either BMC or AMC.
Upon Gause’s arraignment back in October, BostInno reported that she may have been working with an accomplice, as per video surveillance that showed her withdrawing The One Fund money from an Albany bank. BostInno reached out directly to the AG’s office who confirmed to us that Gause was the only person charged.
