A 31-year old former receptionist named Annie Vuong worked at a New York dental practice where she stole the protected health information of over 650 patients. She was sentenced to spend 2 to 6 years in jail for her violation.
In order to perform her duties, Annie was given login credentials to the dental practice’ computer system to access the dental records of patients. She abused her access rights and stole information that her co-defendants use to steal identities and purchase high value items. On February 2, 2015, after the two and a half years that the New York District Attorney’s Office spent investigating identity thefts, Vuong was arrested.
The theft of the PHI of 653 patients occurred between May and November 2012. The types of information stolen from the dental office included names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers. Vuong shared the information with co-defendant Devin Bazile via email.
Bazile obtained credit lines from Barclay card using the victims’ names and information. He got credit ranging from $2000 to $7000 per person. Bazile also worked with co-defendants Ahmeen Evans and Joshua Haughton. They used the credit to buy Apple gift cards, which in turn were used to purchase laptop computers and tablets amounting to over $700,000.
Bazile and Haughton were convicted of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree in 2015. For their role in this identity theft plot, Bazile was sentenced to spend 3 to 9 years in jail while Haughton was sentenced to spend 11/3 to 4 years in jail. Evans also received the same Grand Larceny in the Second Degree conviction. He was sentence to serve 5 years’ probation.
The Court found Vuong guilty of 189 counts including the following violations:
- One count of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree
- 49 counts of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree
- 45 counts of Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree
- 63 counts of Identity Theft in the First Degree
- 30 counts of Identity Theft in the Second Degree
- One count of Unlawful Possession of Personal Identity Information in the Second Degree