The federal government has charged a bookkeeper and her husband with stealing at least $550,000 from an Anchorage medical practice over a period of at least a decade.
Jill and Darin Applebury of Anchorage, both 52, have been named in a 39-count indictment with charges including bank and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Alaska.
Jill Applebury, known also as Jill Wetzsteon, owned Applebury Accounting Services and provided services to the medical practice from the mid-1990s to 2013.
Darin Applebury formerly owned Rapid Recovery Medical Service, a medical equipment supplier that also benefited from the fraudulent transactions, according to a Sept. 22 indictment by a grand jury.
Jill Applebury is the main defendant and the only one charged with bank fraud, said Chloe Martin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's Alaska district office in Anchorage.
The medical practice and the Anchorage physician who owns it are not named in the indictment.
"They are considered a victim, so we are trying to protect that identity at this time," Martin said.
From at least 2004 until March 22, 2013, the couple illegally used the medical practice's bank account and credit card to pay for such things as their family's cellphone and home internet service and their car insurance, the indictment asserts.
The indictment also claims that in 2009, Jill Applebury identified herself as a full-time employee of the medical practice, rather than the independent contractor that she was. That allowed her to receive almost $63,000 from the medical practice's profit-sharing plan in 2010 and 2011. The plan was reserved for employees and was managed by a third party.
In October 2012, Darin Applebury used the medical practice's credit card four times to acquire nearly $3,000 in medical products for Rapid Recovery. Jill Applebury helped carry out the transactions, the indictment says.
"Darin Applebury effected these fraudulent credit card transactions using the physician's name and address unbeknownst to and without the permission of the Anchorage physician," the U.S. attorney's office said.
In one count involving bank fraud in 2011, Jill Applebury paid off the couple's credit card with funds from the medical clinic's account, the indictment says. The couple's expenses included travel to Montana and Arizona and dining in Anchorage.
The Appleburys are in federal custody, Martin said. They face a variety of penalties, including up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine for the wire fraud charges.
The indictment is based on an investigation by the FBI and the Anchorage Police Department.