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Posted On: Dec. 31, 2006 12:00 AM CST

Lobsterman pinched in workers comp fraud

It wasn't a red flag so much as something that turns red when cooked--lobsters sold by a Lamoine, Maine, resident while he was collecting workers compensation benefits--that led investigators to set a trap of their own.

William Fennelly began collecting incapacity benefits for a back injury suffered in 2000. Two years later, the benefits stopped when Mr. Fennelly reported earnings from another company. Mr. Fennelly soon filed another back injury claim.

However, both companies were insured by Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Co., whose investigators discovered that the man had lobstering and fishing licenses, the Portland-based insurer said.

That led to a lobster "pound" where Mr. Fennelly sold his catches. Not only was he fishing commercially, but Mr. Fennelly also was employed by the Town of Lamoine Transfer Station and as a sternman aboard another boat.

While the man denied working or having bank accounts, MEMIC said it found two such accounts in addition to three deposits--a workers comp benefit check and paychecks from two employers--that all were made the same day.

In December, a judge decided Mr. Fennelly should report to jail later this month to serve a seven-month sentence for perjury.

MEMIC's announcement of Mr. Fennelly's sentencing may have exceeded the legal limit for puns, however.

The announcement read: "As investigators trawled deeper, the truth got murkier" and "an almost three-year case of 'something's fishy' finally ended...with the sentencing of William Fennelly."


Dieters put good health before looks

More than half of U.S. adults think they should lose some weight, so it should come as no surprise

"right">that a majority are resolving to shed pounds during the new year.

According to a survey conducted for New York-based Weight Watchers International Inc., women are more likely than men to go on a diet. The survey found that 61% of female respondents and 50% of male respondents said they plan to shed a few pounds during 2007.

Of those seeking to slim down, 92% said feeling better was the No. 1 motivational factor, while 87% desire to look better and 70% will do so to improve their health.

Roughly half say they are inspired by the desire to reverse the damage of their holiday eating binge.

Unfortunately, nearly two in five U.S. residents say they have cheated or given up on a weight-loss program in the past.

Of those, 79% blame their failure to lose weight on waning motivation, while 77% say cravings for forbidden foods usually lead them to break their healthy New Year's resolutions. And 57% say they usually give up if they do not see results quickly enough.

While women are more likely to go on a diet in the first place, women also are more likely to cheat or give up on a diet than men--47% and 27%, respectively.


'Disinhibited' libido merits £3M award

A former U.K. warehouse employee who claimed that a work-related accident triggered his infidelity and wrecked his marriage has been awarded more than £3 million (nearly $6 million) in damages by a London court.

Stephen Tame, 29, claimed that the head injuries he suffered in a 2002 fall at Professional Cycle Marketing left him with an overactive libido and a "disinhibited" personality disorder that cause him to seek out prostitutes and pornography.

Mr. Tame had been married less than a year when he fell from a gantry while working at a bicycle warehouse in 2002 and spent nearly two months in a coma.

In awarding the compensation, Judge Michael Harris of London's High Court pronounced: "His life and the life of his young wife were shattered."

Lawyers for Professional Cycle Marketing, based in Essex, England, had accepted liability but argued that Mr. Tame exaggerated the severity of his injuries.


Birthday 'bomb' failed to detonate

Sometimes, the best risk management strategy for a company is guarding against disgruntled employees, say federal prosecutors in Newark, N.J.

Authorities last month arrested a systems administrator for Medco Health Solutions Inc. for allegedly planting a "logic bomb" in the Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based pharmacy benefit manager's computer network.

A logic bomb is computer code that is triggered by an event, such as a date, to destroy data in a computer system.

A two-count fraud indictment alleges that former employee Yung-Hsun "Andy" Lin could have wiped out critical data--including a database containing potential drug interaction conflicts for patients' prescribed medicines--stored on more than 70 Medco servers, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the District of New Jersey.

Prosecutors charged that Mr. Lin, who was fearful of being laid off amid a corporate restructuring, planted the code and then revised the faulty "logic bomb" even though he kept his job.

Fortunately for Medco and its clients, Medco found the logic bomb and disarmed it before it detonated on the intended day--Mr. Lin's birthday. However, "the potential damage to Medco and the patients and physicians served by the company cannot be understated," said U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie in a statement.

"Companies and law enforcement must be extremely vigilant to guard against disgruntled employees with the knowledge and position to wreak such havoc," Mr. Christie said.

Contributing: Roberto Ceniceros, Rupal Parekh, Joanne Wojcik