A fugitive wanted in Florida for grand theft and forgery was hired as a manager at Maximus, a state contractor, giving her access to Social Security numbers of nearly one million MassHealth beneficiaries. Maureen Simonetti stole $21,000 from a Blockbuster store in 2001 and skipped court. Massachusetts' background checks missed her out-of-state warrants.
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A wanted woman working for a state contractor with access to the personal information, including Social Security numbers, of hundreds of thousands of people. Fox Undercover wants to know how she got hired in the first place.
Fox Undercover catches a wanted fugitive working for a state contractor, uh, with full and easy access to a lot of people's personal information.
Now, the woman has been wanted on theft and forgery charges for almost a decade. —leaving our investigative reporter Mike Bodette wondering tonight how she ever got hired in the first place.
Maureen Simonetti works for a company called Maximus, which is hired by the state to provide customer service for hundreds of thousands of people who use MassHealth for their healthcare. As a manager, she has access to all sorts of personal information about those people, including Social Security numbers. We discovered Simonetti is a wanted woman who admitted stealing more than $20,000 from a previous job but skipped town and hasn't paid back a dime.
It's not exactly difficult to find out Maureen Simonetti is a wanted woman. Type her name into Google and up pops this wanted poster from the Collier County Sheriff's Office in Florida. She's listed as a fugitive wanted on theft and forgery charges. Ciminetti left Florida for Massachusetts, where she's now working as a manager for Maximus, a state contractor providing customer service for nearly 1 million people on MassHealth. But now Ciminetti's past is catching up with her, even though she doesn't want to own up to it.
Hi, Maureen. I'm Mike Bodette with Fox 25 News.
Isn't this you right here? No, it's not me. Maureen Ciminetti?
No. You're a wanted fugitive in Florida. Why haven't you cleaned up that case? Come on.
This is your There's no denying this Maureen Simonetti is the same one pictured on the wanted poster. We discovered there are actually multiple warrants out for her arrest, one dating back to when she worked as a store manager at Blockbuster in Naples, Florida in 2001. According to this Collier County Sheriff's Office incident report, over a period of 4 days, she removed without permission several deposit bags from the office containing $21,000 in cash and checks. Never depositing the money into the Blockbuster account at Bank of America. She pleaded no contest in 2002 to grand theft charges, agreeing to pay back the $21,000, but she violated her probation, leaving Florida without telling her probation officer and failing to pay restitution, resulting in this warrant being issued. Then there are the theft and forgery charges listed on the wanted poster. They date back to 2002. When Simonetti's own cousin went to the Collier County Sheriff's Office telling them Simonetti forged and cashed two of his checks, Simonetti never showed up at court.
We know this is you. You're a wanted fugitive in Florida, yet you're working for a company that does business with the state of Massachusetts. Is that appropriate?
As a manager at Maximus, Simonetti has access to personal information for hundreds of thousands of people on MassHealth, including Social Security numbers.
Do you think you should be working in a place that handles personal information, people's personal information, Social Security numbers, when you're a wanted fugitive?
Someone with this type of access can do a significant amount of damage to anyone.
Robert Siciliano is a personal security and identity theft consultant.
Unfortunately, in our country, the Social Security number is the key to the kingdom. I mean, it really opens up all the doors necessary for new account fraud, new bank accounts, new credit cards. And even to take over existing accounts.
In a statement, Maximus tells us, "We have no reason to believe that anyone's personal information was used inappropriately. We have completed our review of this matter and the individual's employment with us has been terminated." But there's no explanation from Maximus about why Simonetti was hired in the first place.
Doing a simple Google search and finding a wanted poster with this person, uh, is kind of ridiculous that her employer or the state wasn't aware of that.
A spokesman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services says, "We take allegations like this one very seriously. Our understanding is that Maximus requires background investigations into all employees working on this contract." But a Massachusetts background check, also known as a CORI, does not uncover out-of-state criminal records, such as Simonetti's grand theft case in Florida.
Well, the fact that Massachusetts allowed someone with this type of criminal history and even a warrant out for their— her arrest, to be employed in a managerial position tells me that the system is definitely broken, that there are probably, unfortunately, are others out there.
And even more evidence the system is broken: Maureen Simonetti's attorney tells me his client actually disclosed pleading no contest to grand theft when she filled out her application to work at Maximus in 2005. However, she didn't tell the company she never paid back the money. He says his client is working to resolve the outstanding warrants telling me the mother of two has been a good employee, leading a crime-free, spotless existence since moving back to Massachusetts. Simonetti could be in a lot of trouble. Her probation officer is recommending she go to jail for a year and be forced to pay back the $21,000. This story started with a tip. You have an idea for a Fox Undercover investigation? Call us at 1-800-TV-FOX-25. I'm Mike Bodette for Fox Undercover.
