Third One Fund Scammer Arrested For Allegedly Filing Fake Claim

A New Jersey woman allegedly tried to convince officials that she was injured in the Boston Marathon attack.

One Fund

A third person was arrested for trying to collect money meant to benefit the victims and families impacted by the Boston Marathon bombing by defrauding the One Fund.

According to New Jersey officials from the Union County Prosecutor’s office, Iris Gamble, of Linden, N.J., tried to defraud the fund that was set up to distribute money for medical expenses following the April 15 attack. The suspect is being charged with third-degree attempted theft by deception, fourth degree fraud, and creating fraudulent documents.

An investigation by the Union County Prosecutor’s Office and Special Prosecution Unit revealed that Gamble submitted an application to the One Fund on June 11, claiming she was in Boston on the day of the attack and was hurt when the bombs went off on Boylston Street.

Officials said Gamble was “seeking monetary damages for injuries she claimed to sustain and was later treated for in a Newark hospital,” but was caught after a “number of irregularities and misspellings” in the paperwork that she handed in. Gamble’s application was flagged, and the case was forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakely’s office.

“Our investigation revealed that the defendant was not in Boston on the day of the bombings,” said Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park. “The defendant wasted little time in trying to profit from the generosity and kindness of others.”

Gamble is scheduled to be arraigned in Union County Superior Court on August 16, officials said.

This is the third time someone has been arrested and charged by prosecutors for allegedly attempting to scam the One Fund. In July, Boston resident Branden Mattier, 22, of the South End, was arrested at his residence after allegedly submitting forms to the One Fund in an effort to receive more than $2 million for injuries he claimed his aunt sustained in the Marathon attack. After an investigation into Mattier’s paperwork, prosecutors from Coakley’s office found that the suspect’s aunt had passed away 10 years prior to the bombings.

Several weeks later, a New York woman was arrested on similar charges, after she allegedly filed fraudulent forms to One Fund officials that said she was admitted to the hospital for head injuries she sustained on April 15. Audrea Gause, of Troy, was apprehended out of state and charged on a Massachusetts fugitive warrant. She was charged with Larceny over $250.