Woman convicted in medical fraud, patient death faces new charges

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

A woman who spent more than seven years in prison for a $7 million insurance fraud and the unrelated death of a patient at her now-defunct Pennsylvania nursing home is in trouble with the law again.

This time, the Allegheny County district attorney’s office says Martha Bell, 70, has swindled an 89-year-old man out of $322,000 by falsely telling him he could invest in Medicare “bed licenses” that she purportedly claimed to still control.

A criminal complaint Thursday alleges Bell spent the money at The Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh and The Meadows Racetrack & Casino south of the city, on furniture, purchases from Victoria’s Secret, restitution payments from her previous court cases and tax bills.

The West Mifflin woman’s attorney, James Paulick, didn’t immediately return a call to comment after Bell surrendered. She’s free on bond pending a preliminary hearing Dec. 1. District attorney’s Detective Jackelyn Weibel alleged Bell contacted the man, whom she knew through a mutual friend, shortly after she was released from prison in early 2013.