Roderick Marvin Bennett, Health Care Fraud, Arkansas 2023

Roderick Marvin Bennett, a 53-year-old man from Camden, Arkansas, has been convicted of health care fraud after a federal jury found him guilty of the crime in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Bennett, the former chief of staff for Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) in Washington, D.C., was convicted of one count of health care fraud. The charges stemmed from Bennett placing his girlfriend on the health care plan designed for employees at LIUNA’s headquarters when he knew she was not eligible to participate in the plan.

The health care plan was designed for employees at LIUNA’s headquarters, and Bennett, who served as the chief of staff, knew his girlfriend was not eligible for the plan. Despite this, he went ahead and placed her on the plan, causing a loss of thousands of dollars to the union.

The conviction is a major blow to LIUNA, a labor organization that represents more than 500,000 laborers in the construction industry in the United States and Canada. Bennett served as the chief of staff at LIUNA headquarters for approximately four years, until October 2016.

In addition to the health care fraud conviction, Bennett has also pleaded guilty to three counts of theft from a labor organization. He stole over $150,000 from LIUNA by making unauthorized personal purchases on his LIUNA-issued American Express card.

Bennett faces up to five years in prison and will be sentenced at a later date. The sentence will be determined by considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The U.S. Department of Labor investigated the case, and Trial Attorneys Vincent Falvo and Jeremy Franker of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section are prosecuting the case.

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