CNY Psych Center employee charged with stealing nearly $6K in workers’-compensation fraud case

MARCY, N.Y. — A New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) employee has been arrested on multiple felony charges that he defrauded the workers’-compensation system and stole benefits by claiming he wasn’t working due to injury when he was in fact operating a business.

Karl Hellinger, 53, of Clinton, a security care treatment assistant II at the Central New York Psychiatric Center (CNYPC) in Marcy, was charged with grand larceny in the third degree and insurance fraud in the third degree, both felonies, according to a news release issued Thursday by New York State Inspector General Letizia Tagliafierro.

An investigation by the office of the inspector general found that in June 2018, Hellinger left work at CNYPC due to a work-related shoulder injury and began collecting workers’-compensation wage-replacement benefits. While on leave, Hellinger worked at K&K Korean, a food truck operating in Oneida County, between July 4 and Aug. 23 last year, obtaining nearly $6,000 in benefits to which he was not entitled, the release stated.

Hellinger was arraigned on the charges in the New Hartford Town Court and released on bail pending a reappearance in court on May 2.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com