Obamacare’s latest scandal is a $35 billion ghost story



The Democrats have named their price to end the government shutdown — an additional $350 billion for health care over the next decade. Critics say a big chunk of that money may go to ghosts.

At issue are the generous subsidies the Biden administration created for Affordable Care Act policies, sweeteners that are slated to expire in December. Making health care essentially free for millions of Americans, those policies have sent enrollment in Obamacare plans skyrocketing. But a recent study found they have also sparked a curious phenomenon: an estimated 12 million enrollees “without a single claim — no doctor visit, lab test, or prescription filled” in 2024.

Obamacare expansion has created an explosion of phantom patients — including 6.4 million of them so far in 2025.

The Paragon Health Institute study reports that this is triple the number of no-claim policyholders before the Biden sweeteners were put in place.

“Among those now eligible for zero-premium plans with low or no deductible,” the study found, “that number increased nearly sevenfold. … A whopping 40% of enrollees in fully subsidized plans had no claims in 2024. In 2024 alone, taxpayers sent at least $35 billion to insurers for people who paid no premiums and never used their plan,” the report said.

Although many analysts suspect that these numbers suggest widespread fraud, Democrats and the insurance industry argue that they reflect consumers taking advantage of affordable coverage. They warn that the expiration of Biden-era reforms will make policies far more expensive for more than 20 million Americans.

“If Congress fails to extend the health care tax credits, millions of Americans will face immediate and severe premium increases, leading many to forgo coverage altogether,” said Chris Bond, a spokesman for AHIP, the lobbying arm of the health insurance industry. “Congress must act as quickly as possible to protect Americans from this affordability crisis.”

As Democrats have made health care their line in the sand on the government shutdown, Biden-era expansions of Obamacare are receiving new attention as a symbol of both expanding access to health care and of spending run amok.

Critics say they underscore the findings of the Department of Government Efficiency, which has highlighted a lack of accountability in massive government spending programs at a time when the federal government is struggling to corral massive deficits and debt. They say the Biden sweeteners also illustrate how and why government spending keeps increasing: Once a subsidy is put in place, it is hard to take it away from voters.

Swollen rolls

The Obamacare expansion at issue came about through legislation and regulations during Biden’s term and was often cast as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the scope of who was eligible for subsidies was broadened to households with incomes above 400% of the federal poverty line — making a family of four earning up to $160,000 eligible for subsidized plans. Also, increased subsidies made Obamacare free for those with incomes between 100% and 150% of the poverty line, and longer enrollment periods were introduced.

The cost for this, on the other hand, is borne by taxpayers.

“Biden’s COVID credits didn’t reduce health care costs — they just shifted them to taxpayers while padding insurer and enrollment intermediary profits,” Paragon President Brian Blase said.

Like all gigantic markets and massive government programs, the Affordable Care Act and what people pay each month have become a very complicated thing, varying by age, state, plan level, and other factors. But the figures for the Obamacare “reference plan” (silver level) reveal what has happened since the COVID pandemic.

In 2021, when Biden was inaugurated, the basic plan cost an individual $27 a month if reported income was at or below the federal poverty line, which stood at around $14,500 a year. For those making 50% more, the “reference plan” cost $75 a month, and so on up to $152 a month for someone making more than $30,000. Those monthly payment figures were constant regardless of what the insurers charged, with taxpayers making up the difference.

Through legislation Biden pushed through by narrow majorities or via reconciliation, the amount someone would pay each month in the first two categories dropped to zero. And as Obamacare became essentially free, millions signed up — enrolling at rates the plan had never seen since its inception in 2013.

RELATED: Obamacare was never affordable — and neither is cowardice

Photo credit should read RHONA WISE/AFP via Getty Images

The overall figures reflect this explosion. Between 2016 and 2020, an average of 8.5 million people signed up for a subsidized Obamacare policy each year, and in none of those years did the figure equal 9 million, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

In 2021, however, the subsidized total topped 10 million, and by 2024 it had nearly doubled to 19.5 million, CMS figures show.

“It’s all counterintuitive that when enrollment isn’t being publicized, no one is out beating the bushes to get people enrolled like we had in the early years of Obamacare,” said Ed Haislmaier, a health care expert at the Heritage Foundation. “Amazing that a product’s sales would go through the roof when nobody was talking about it.”

Some analysts believe the numbers indicate rampant fraud. Blase claimed in a letter to the Wall Street Journal that the expansion has created an explosion of phantom patients — including 6.4 million of them so far in 2025. “The problem isn’t real people with coverage they don’t use — it’s fraudulent sign-ups who never should have been subsidized,” he wrote.

Haislmaier agreed. “We don’t have an exact number for how many people might be fake. I don't think anyone does,” he said. “What we do have is a lot of circumstantial evidence, a lot of data points, and a lot of information about how the markets have always operated to suggest there is massive fraud here.”

Feds smell a rat

Paragon is not the only group voicing concerns. It often seems like fraud is endemic in federal programs, and government health care appears to offer a rich vein for such activity.

In fact, CMS itself has warned of potentially rampant fraud and abuse sapping taxpayers through the revamped Obamacare exchanges. CMS focused on people who were unwittingly signed up for more than one plan, possibilities that multiplied when the Biden administration relaxed reviews of applicants and extended open enrollment periods.

CMS found in July that 2.8 million Americans were potentially enrolled “concurrently” in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Plan in more than one state, or on one of those federal programs plus the Obamacare exchange, resulting in inexplicable overlaps that could cost taxpayers $14 billion a year.

CMS insists its analysis is helping identify such problems and that it is working with states and exchanges to strengthen eligibility verification processes and clean up enrollment data. The Trump administration has instituted some safeguards, such as sending state Medicaid agencies and state-based exchanges a list of individuals with possible concurrent enrollments so they can cross-check appropriate eligibility.

Opponents of expanded subsidies note that when the government makes a deep pool of money available, as has happened with the ACA, fraud is sure to follow. In June, Bloomberg did a deep dive on the phenomenon, describing a rat’s nest of unscrupulous call centers, primarily based in Florida, that have lured people in with various gimmicks and then signed them up for subsidized plans.

Democrats who traditionally oppose big business make strange political bedfellows of the insurance industry.

What’s more, those licensed to sell plans had access to Obamacare exchange databases, which allowed them to change both the “agent of record” (thereby making themselves recipient of whatever bonus insurers paid for new sign-ups), or the plan a person was enrolled in (thereby increasing their commission and the taxpayers’ bill), according to Gabrielle Kalisz, one of the authors of Paragon’s report.

Consequently, millions of Americans may be unaware that they own a subsidized Obamacare policy, and horror stories abound of unsuspecting people hit with tax bills seeking to recoup the subsidies.

“Nobody seems to have an incentive to be a good actor in the process,” Kalisz said. “The insurance companies are perfectly happy to keep getting the rising premiums, the navigators or agents are happy to keep getting the commissions, and Obamacare supporters are happy to act as if all this reflects people getting coverage.”

Nor are the so-called “phantom enrollees” the only issue. For example, the numbers don’t add up when percentages of state populations according to census data are measured against the Obamacare subsidies. Fourteen states have more people enrolled at up to 150% of the federal poverty line than they do residents who fit that category, and Florida’s total is five times what census data shows it could be.

“The enrollment fraud has become a massive problem,” said Michael Cannon, a health care expert at the libertarian Cato Institute. “The program has become like a great big ATM spitting out checks, and there’s very little policing going on because the government doesn’t care as much as it should about other people’s money.”

The new figures also diverge from the fairly consistent behavior in health care markets — another red flag, Haislmaier said. In 2019 and 2020, less than a quarter of policyholders never filed a claim. And the huge increase in so-called “phantom enrollees” doesn’t appear in market segments other than the now highly subsidized Obamacare plans.

Such figures make no sense if they reflect genuine people aware of what coverage they were enrolled in, and bogus enrollment activity offers a clear explanation.

“This whole situation has been ideal for the fraudster,” he said. “Now you’ve got more enrolled than are eligible, subsidized plans spiking and non-subsidized plans flat. These are just all indicators that there is something wacky going on here.”

Subsidies or shutdown?

All of this is informing the partisan debate over health care and efforts to fund the government.

Republicans, including some who got fabulously wealthy through the health care system, including Florida’s Sen. Rick Scott, have said extending the subsidies is ruinously expensive and foolhardy, given what has happened since they were introduced.

“COVID opened the door for massive waste, fraud, and abuse of government programs, like the billions in fraud and abuse allowed by the ‘temporary COVID’ enhanced Obamacare subsidies,” Scott posted in September. “Americans don’t want their tax dollars lining the pockets of insurance companies — it’s time to end this clear abuse of YOUR dollars.”

RELATED: Smash the health care cartel, free the market

pilli via iStock/Getty Images

Scott drew attention to a Sept. 15 post by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) that made much the same point: “Extending the ‘temporary COVID’ enhanced Obamacare subsidies would perpetuate fraudulent activity, sending billions of dollars to insurance companies for policies that people are unaware they’re enrolled in and do not use,” he posted.

On the other side are Democrats who make strange political bedfellows of the insurance industry. Some who traditionally oppose big business, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) or socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), insist these recent subsidies must continue, preferably permanently. For them, Obamacare more than doubling — from 11.4 million to more than 24 million between 2020 and today — is a success sign of government-run health care.

Warren compared ending the subsidies to taking health care away from people.

“Still waiting to find out how Trump and Republicans think cutting health insurance for 15 million Americans makes America healthy again,” she posted on Sept. 15.

Polls suggest support for government-subsidized health care is a partisan issue. Last November, Gallup reported that “90% of Democrats say that the federal government is responsible for American health care coverage, while 65% of Independents hold the same view. Although only 32% of Republicans share that opinion.” Another survey found that among those receiving subsidies, people who voted for Democrats outnumbered Republicans by more than two to one.

Insurers say the Paragon study was flawed and accused the think tank of misunderstanding how insurance works. It’s not unusual for homeowners or car insurance policyholders to go years without filing a claim, and the same could be true with health care, they say. According to the industry and Democrats, the ballooning numbers reflect a thriving market in which many more Americans are enjoying health care coverage, as stated in a rebuttal released by AHIP in August.

Republicans want to let the subsidies expire. Democrats want to make them permanent.

Of course, that leaves some wiggle room, such as extending the subsidies for another year or some set period of time, a kicking-the-can option long favored by Congress.

Whatever the outcome, large subsidies that have always been part of Obamacare will continue. For all the hue and cry about rising costs, the elimination of Biden-era sweeteners would simply return the system to the way it was operating before 2021, Kalisz said.

“It’s crony math, a kind of corporate welfare,” she told RealClearInvestigations. “Why are the insurers now making it seem like all the subsidies are going away? It’s a form of scaring and spooking the public.”

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.

119 Amtrak workers loot $12M in record-breaking fraud heist — many keep taxpayer-funded gig: Report



The Amtrak Office of Inspector General released the findings of a bombshell investigation on Wednesday, revealing "the largest employee conspiracy our office has ever investigated."

According to the OIG, at least 119 Amtrak employees participated in "a widespread scheme," conspiring with New York health care providers to defraud the company's health care plan out of over $12 million.

'The sheer volume of employees who cavalierly participated in this scheme to steal Amtrak's funds suggests not only a serious lapse in basic ethics, but a troubling workforce culture, at least in the Northeast region, in which blatant criminal behavior was somehow normalized.'

The investigation stated that the fraud occurred between 2019 and 2022 and involved 28 now retired or resigned workers. Another 30 employees departed from Amtrak for "other reasons."

However, the majority of the 119 alleged crooked workers are reportedly still with Amtrak, a company that has never turned a profit since its creation in 1971 and leans on taxpayer funds to cover its losses.

The office said, "The OIG's findings on 61 remaining active employees were given to Amtrak for consideration of appropriate administrative disciplinary action."

"A dozen employees have been criminally charged in the case, and seven have pleaded guilty, pending sentencing," the OIG stated.

Amtrak Inspector General Kevin Winters noted that he hopes the investigation will serve as a deterrent for other employees and health care providers.

"The sheer volume of employees who cavalierly participated in this scheme to steal Amtrak's funds suggests not only a serious lapse in basic ethics, but a troubling workforce culture, at least in the Northeast region, in which blatant criminal behavior was somehow normalized," Winters remarked.

The OIG launched the investigation after an agent observed "unusual billing patterns." Upon further review, the office discovered that three New York-based providers with a high number of Amtrak employees as patients had submitted "questionable billings."

The employees reportedly "accepted cash kickbacks from three health care providers in exchange for the use of their insurance information, and in some cases, that of their dependents."

"The providers used the employee-provided information to file fraudulent and questionable medical claims for services that were never provided or not medically necessary. In total, Amtrak's health care plan was billed over $16 million and paid out more than $12 million during the scheme," the OIG reported.

Amtrak told Fox News Digital it has taken "significant steps" to address the fraud.

"Like many employers, Amtrak calls on medical benefit providers and insurers to do more to identify suspicious activity and stop medical insurance fraud," the company stated. "Amtrak strongly condemns this reprehensible act that occurred between 2019 and 2022 and is taking swift action with all active employees involved in the investigation."

"While we continue to work closely with the OIG to identify and stamp out fraud, we also continue to work on other initiatives to address this issue," the statement continued. "Amtrak has implemented various measures to enhance fraud prevention and empower employees to report suspected wrongdoing. These efforts include increasing oversight and strengthening efforts to eliminate fraudulent schemes."

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Wild attacks on luxury cars puzzle insurance officials — until wildlife expert notices something odd about 'bear' on video



Authorities were baffled by a series of supposed “bear attacks” on luxury cars in California earlier this year.

There were deep claw marks on the interiors of the vehicles and even video evidence of the alleged beast doing damage. However, investigators soon realized that the "bear attacks" were not what they seemed.

The three insurance companies claimed they were defrauded of $141,839 because of the alleged insurance-fraud scheme.

An insurance claim was made regarding an alleged "bear attack" on a 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost on Jan. 28 in Lake Arrowhead — an unincorporated community in the San Bernardino mountains. The reported animal was said to have caused interior damage to the vehicle.

The California Department of Insurance said in a statement that there were two other insurance claims on the same date of loss and in the same location. The "bear" was said to have attacked a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350.

This raised eyebrows with insurance officials.

The people who made the claims included surveillance video of the alleged "bear" attacks.

Investigators reviewed the videos and noticed the bear looked rather peculiar.

The California Department of Insurance asked a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to review the three alleged "bear attack" videos — and the biologist quickly got to the bottom of it.

“Upon further scrutiny of the video, the investigation determined the bear was actually a person in a bear costume,” the California Department of Insurance wrote.

Law enforcement executed a search warrant, and detectives found the bear costume in one of the suspect's homes. The bear costume included metal claws that reportedly were used to damage the luxury cars.

The California Department of Insurance, the Glendale Police Department, and the California Highway Patrol ascertained that four suspects were involved in the alleged insurance fraud scam.

Police arrested Ruben Tamrazian — a 26-year-old from Glendale; Ararat Chirkinian — a 39-year-old from Glendale; Vahe Muradkhanyan — a 32-year-old from Glendale; and Alfiya Zuckerman — a 39-year-old from Valley Village. All four suspects have been charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy.

The three insurance companies claimed they were defrauded of $141,839 over the alleged scheme.

The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case.

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Michigan doctor convicted of defrauding insurance companies of $30 million, writing 'medically unnecessary prescriptions' for opioids



A Michigan doctor has been found guilty on 30 of the 32 charges related to overprescribing opioids and insurance fraud that federal prosecutors leveled against him.

David Jankowski, 62, of Bingham Farms, Michigan, ran what amounts to an opioid "pill mill," writing perhaps thousands of what prosecutors called "medically unnecessary prescriptions" for controlled substances such as Oxycontin, Oxycodone, morphine, hydrocodone, Xanax and others.

According to an investigation conducted by the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services, Jankowski issued or authorized the issuance of more than 1.7 million Schedule II substances, 800,000 Schedule III substances, and 870,000 Schedule IV substances, all to lure opioid-addicted patients to his practice and use them to engage in an insurance fraud scheme.

“The improper distribution of prescription drugs outside the course of ordinary medical practice causes significant harm. It is in everyone’s best interests to keep these highly addictive substances off the street, and it is particularly disturbing when a trusted physician is the vehicle for the illegal distribution of opioids,” U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison stated.

Jankowski even exchanged opioid prescriptions for cash given to him by recruiters who would bring in even more patients to expand his practice and increase the number of fraudulent insurance claims he could make.

Jankowski operated a clinic called Summit Medical Group, which has locations in Southfield and Dearborn Heights, Michigan, both suburbs of Detroit. Jankowski then amassed a sizeable clientele by providing patients with easy access to opioids, then filing fraudulent insurance claims on their behalf. According to evidence presented at trial, Jankowski collected almost $30 million in fraudulent auto and private medical insurance claims and an additional $6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid.

“This defendant exploited vulnerable patients and the health care system by prescribing and billing for medically unnecessary prescription medications. By doing so, he violated his oath to do no harm, and defrauded health care insurance programs. This type of crime puts patients at risk and makes medical care more costly for all of us,” said James A. Tarasca, Special Agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office. “Thanks to the diligent work of the FBI and our law enforcement partners, we are able to address this important aspect of health care fraud and continue our mission of bringing those who operate these criminal schemes to justice.”

Jankowski will be sentenced on November 15, 2022 at 1:30 p.m. local time. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Man threw himself in front of train, lost two legs in scheme to collect insurance money, court finds



A Hungarian court has ruled that a man who lost both of his legs after being struck by a train stepped in front of the moving vehicle intentionally in order to collect millions of dollars in insurance payouts.

The man — identified in court documents as Sandor Cs. due to the country's strict privacy laws — has claimed since July 30, 2014, that he stepped on glass, lost his balance, and fell onto the railroad tracks just outside a train station in the Hungarian village of Nyircsaszari.

But on Nov.9, the Pest Central District Court ruled that Cs. had deliberately put himself in the train's path in an attempt to swindle the system. He was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay more than $5,000 in legal fees, the Daily Mail reported.

Authorities in the country had reportedly suspected that the 54-year-old inflicted the injury himself on purpose in order to claim a $3.2 million insurance payout.

Their suspicions stemmed from the discovery that Cs. had taken out 14 high-risk life insurances policies in the year leading up to the strange incident. His wife attempted to file the claims soon after the incident, but the insurance companies refused to pay on grounds that the injury was caused intentionally.

The collision resulted in the defendant losing both of his legs from the knee down. He is now wheelchair-bound and uses prosthetic limbs.

Cs. reportedly maintains his innocence and has argued that he took out the insurance policies after allegedly being advised that returns on the insurance policies would be better than returns from savings accounts.

"I find the ruling very peculiar. Naturally, it isn't what I expected, I am disappointed," he told local news outlet Blikk following the ruling.

He vowed to appeal if possible, saying, "I need to see this through to the end because, as is, this is not right, and the court must feel the same way."

According to the International Business Times, the seven-year trial took such a long time in part because the train conductor changed his story. After originally saying that the defendant fell, he later claimed that he had thrown himself in front of the train on purpose.

The defendant reportedly worked in the thermal energy industry prior to the incident. He now says he is unable to work and that the medical bills and legal fees have bankrupted him.

Father gets 212 years in prison for 'evil and diabolical' plot to kill his two autistic sons for life insurance



An illegal immigrant in California has been sentenced to 212 years in prison for plotting to kill his family in order to cash in on the accidental death insurance policies he had fraudulently taken out on their lives.

Ali F. Elmezayen, 45, was given the maximum sentence for a range of crimes including wire fraud, mail fraud, identity theft, and money laundering in federal court on Thursday for engaging in a scheme that resulted in his driving off a wharf at the Port of Los Angeles in 2019 with his common law wife and his two autistic sons in the car. His two sons were killed in the crash, but their mother, Rehab Diab, survived.

"He is the ultimate phony and a skillful liar ... and is nothing more than a greedy and brutal killer," U.S. District Judge John F. Walter said during sentencing, according to a Department of Justice news release. "The only regret that the defendant has is that he got caught."

In handing out the maximum punishment, Walter characterized the scheme as "evil and diabolical" and noted the "vicious and callous nature of his crimes."

Between 2012 and 2013, around the same time he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Elmezayen purchased more than $3 million in life and accidental death insurance policies for his family and for himself from eight different insurance companies. After purchasing the policies, he repeatedly called the companies — sometimes pretending to be his ex-wife — to make sure the policies were active.

Elmezayen even called two of the companies to verify that they would not investigate claims made two years after the policies were purchased, prosecutors alleged. Recordings of the phone calls were played for the jury during the trial.

Then, in 2015, shortly after the two-year contestability period on the policies had expired, Elmezayen drove his car into the ocean with his ex-wife and two youngest children inside. The couple has another son who was away at camp at the time of the incident.

Prosecutors said Elmezayen kept his window open to facilitate his own escape to shore. His ex-wife, who doesn't know how to swim, somehow managed to survive with the help of a fisherman who threw her a flotation device. However, his two autistic sons — 8-year-old Abdelkrim and 13-year-old Elhassan — drowned after being trapped inside the vehicle.

"Mr. Elmezayen conceived a cold-blooded plan to murder his autistic sons and their mother, then cash in on insurance policies," Acting United States Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison said in the news release.

"Fathers are supposed to protect their children but instead, Elmezayen drove his boys straight to their certain death in exchange for cash," added Kristi Johnson, assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office.

In addition to sentencing Elmezayen to more than 200 years in prison, Walter also ordered he pay $261,751 in restitution to the insurance companies that he defrauded.

According to NBC News, "Elmezeyan is also facing murder charges in a pending state case, where he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole."

Hate hoax accusation: N-word, KKK, swastikas spray-painted on car. But authorities say the owner did it.



A vehicle was discovered last month spray-painted with the N-word, KKK, and swastikas, as well as messages in support of President Donald Trump's re-election — and against Black Lives Matter — in North Buffalo, New York.

Image source: WGRZ-TV video screenshot

But now authorities say the owner of the BMW X5 carried out the vandalism, WGRZ-TV reported.

What are the details?

Erie County District Attorney John Flynn last week said 18-year-old Clifton Eutsey allegedly spray-painted his own car and is facing multiple charges, the station said:

  • third-degree insurance fraud, a felony;
  • falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor;
  • offering a false instrument for filing, a misdemeanor; and
  • falsifying business records, a misdemeanor.

The graffiti also included a homophobic slur, and the car's windshield was smashed, the Buffalo News reported. The police report also said sugar was poured into the gas tank, WGRZ added.

Image source: WGRZ-TV video screenshot

Eutsey was released on his own recognizance and is scheduled for a Jan. 11 felony hearing, the station said, adding that if convicted on all charges, Eutsey faces up to seven years in prison.

Frank LoTempio III, Eutsey's attorney, entered a plea of not guilty on his client's behalf, the News reported, adding that Flynn said there's video evidence to support the fraud allegation.

"Behave out there, Mr. Eutsey," City Court Judge Shannon Heneghan said, according to the paper.

More charges

Eutsey faces felony charges in a separate incident, WGRZ said, adding that Buffalo police officers allegedly found him in possession of two loaded, illegal firearms during an Oct. 24 traffic stop.

He was arraigned on two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon as well as traffic violations, including driving without a license, the station said.

Eutsey posted bail — set at $20,000 cash or bond, or $10,000 partially secured bond — and was released, WGRZ reported. He's scheduled for a Jan. 4 felony hearing on the latter charges, the station said.

Anything else?

TheBlaze has extensively reported on hate crime hoaxes:

Woman uses circular saw to cut off own hand in attempt to commit $1 million insurance fraud. Now she's headed to jail.



A Slovenian woman and her boyfriend are headed to jail after a court determined the pair engaged in insurance fraud.

The woman, Julija Adlesic, was determined to have cut off her own hand with a circular saw in an attempt to secure more than $1 million in disability insurance payments.

What are the details?

According to the Slovenian Press Agency, 22-year-old Adlesic and her boyfriend concocted the plan to cash out a variety of disability insurance policies after she decided to cut off her own hand in early 2019.

Adlesic's boyfriend, Sebastien Abramov, was said to have taken out at least five insurance policies on Adlesic. The five policies totaled approximately $1.16 million.

Following the grisly incident, Adlesic rushed to the hospital — leaving her hand behind — and told doctors that she accidentally severed the hand while cutting tree branches.

Her leaving the hand behind wasn't a coincidence or an accident, according to the prosecution, which said the couple intentionally left the severed hand behind to ensure the injury's permanence.

Even though they left the hand at the scene of the incident, experts were able to reattach her extremity.

Ahead of the injury, prosecution alleged, the couple was looking up internet searches regarding prosthetic hands.

The Ljubljana District Court on Friday found Adlesic and Abramov guilty of insurance fraud and sentenced the pair to two and three years in prison, respectively.

'Only I know how it happened'

Throughout the trial, Adlesic insisted she was the victim of a terrible accident and did not intentionally cut off her own hand.

In a statement, Adlesic said, "No one wants to be crippled. My youth has been destroyed. I lost my hand at the age of 20. Only I know how it happened."

Of the couple's impending incarceration, Judge Marjeta Dvornik said, "We believe the sentences are fair and appropriate, and will serve their purpose."

You can read more on the history of the case here.

SLOVENSKENOVICE.SI: Julija Adlešič pred razglasitvijo sodbewww.youtube.com