A villager has pleaded guilty in an insurance fraud case involving her brother’s wife.
Sophie Nassif Bolous, 74, who lives in Villa Vera Cruz in the village of Santiago, is facing a fraud charge. She was arrested on warrant last week and held in the Sumter County Detention Center. She was released on $2,000 bond.
Bolous pleaded not guilty to the case Wednesday in Sumter County Court before Judge Mary Hatcher. She retained criminal defense attorney Danielle Barbato of Bogin, Munns & Munns for legal representation.
In a court form, Bolous said she was collecting $828 a month in Social Security benefits and had $20,000 in the bank. She also owns $200,000 in real estate stocks and owns a 2017 Toyota Camry.
She is accused of working in concert with her brother, Youseff El-Masry, 81, who also lives in Villa Vera Cruz, to collect $22,050 from Genworth Insurance for care of his wife, Earline Peyton.
Bolous filed paperwork claiming she provided care to Peyton for $25 an hour. She also claimed she was not related to Peyton by blood or marriage, according to an investigation by the Florida Department of Financial Services’ Division of Investigative and Forensic Services. Bolous said she provides care 78 hours a week.
Genworth Insurance issued a “care call” on May 12, 2021 with El-Masry, who had Bolous with him on speakerphone. El-Masry, who emigrated to the United States in 1968 and spent many years in Chicago, told the insurance company representative that “Bolous’ English is not the best,” according to the report. . The call was made on a registered line. Bolous claimed she worked around 10 hours a day, helping Peyton get out of bed and to the bathroom. She also said she helped bathe Peyton and bring her to the dinner table. An investigator analyzed the call and determined that Bolous was “being coached”.
When an investigator visited Bolous’s home last August, she was confronted with the fact that she was earning $1,800 a week caring for Peyton. Bolous said “it doesn’t make sense”. She said she had not received a penny for treatment and concluded that she was doing “volunteering”. During the interview with the investigator at her home, she also admitted that El-Masry was her brother.
El-Masry, who also faces a fraud charge, made headlines for his bitter battle earlier this year with the Community Development District 2 Supervisory Board. in an effort to salvage an illicit addition he made to his house without the approval of the architectural review board. He claimed to have made the unauthorized addition for the care of his sick wife.