Tina Marie Karasek, 39, of Chester, Maryland was sentenced on August 17, 2015 in the Queen Anne’s County Circuit Court to 8 years in the Maryland Division of Corrections following her guilty plea to one count of embezzlement, two counts of identity fraud, and four counts of obtaining prescriptions by fraud.

Karasek was arrested by members of the Queen Anne’s County Drug Task Force in November, 2014 and was charged with offenses ranging from possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance, identity fraud and embezzlement. The arrest was the result of a several month investigation which revealed that Karasek was using patient information, that she obtained from her job with a medical billing service, to conduct a large scale prescription fraud scheme. Karasek filed fraudulent prescriptions with numerous local pharmacies in order to obtain oxycodone and other controlled dangerous substances.  During the investigation police served a search and seizure warrant at Karasek’s home which turned up a large volume of prescription pills and evidence of long term prescription fraud.  Police also uncovered that Karasek was embezzling money from the billing service in which she was employed, which totaled in excess of $10,000.00.

Following her release from prison, Karasek will be on 5 years of supervised probation and was also ordered to repay $10,280.61 to the billing company that previously employed her.

Lance Richardson, State’s Attorney, commented that “this fraud scheme conducted by Karasek was very elaborate and the investigation into these crimes was very complex.  It was the hard work by the members of the Queen Anne’s County Drug Task Force that allowed us to hold Ms. Karasek responsible for the crimes she committed against several innocent victims and this County as a whole.  These types of crimes wreak havoc on our community and it’s our job to hold people accountable when they elect to engage in such conduct.  I think we accomplished that goal today and made our community a bit safer by removing Karasek from our streets.”