Boston man arrested for making false $2M claim to Marathon bombing fund
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In this image from video provided by WBZ TV, spectators and runners run from what was described as twin explosions that shook the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2013, in Boston. Two explosions shattered the euphoria of the Boston Marathon finish line on Monday, sending authorities out on the course to carry off the injured while the stragglers were rerouted away from the smoking site of the blasts. (AP Photo/WBZTV) MANDATORY CREDIT
A man was arrested Tuesday and accused of making a false claim for over $2 million to a fund set up to aid victims of April's Boston Marathon bombings using his dead aunt's name.
MyFoxBoston.com reported that 22-year-old Branden Mattier was arrested outside his home in Boston's South End by a Massachusetts state trooper who had presented him with a simulated check for $2.195 million from One Fund Boston. He was charged with attempted larceny over $250 and identity theft.
The office of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said that Mattier claimed that his deceased aunt, Onevia Bradley, suffered a double amputation in the April 15 bombings. Mattier allegedly sent an e-mail to The One Fund asking if his aunt could make a claim as a double amputee if the amputation was expected to be performed in the future. The One Fund later received a claim form from Mattier, along with a letter allegedly from the chief of trauma services at Boston Medical Center affirming Bradley as a double amputee.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}However, hospital officials said Bradley never received treatment in connection with the bombings and the investigation revealed that Bradley had actually died more than a decade earlier.