The One Boston Fund was set up to aid victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, so Branden Mattier allegedly submitted a claim on behalf of his aunt, who he said lost both legs in the blast. One problem: His aunt died more than a decade ago. Now Mattier, 22, is charged with larceny and identity theft, reports CBS Boston. Police arrested him at his home yesterday, after an undercover state trooper showed up with a fake check for almost $2.2 million.
The Attorney General’s office says Mattier sent an email in late May to the fund asking if his aunt could submit a claim if the surgery hadn't occurred yet; the fund says it last month received a forged letter from the chief of trauma services at Boston Medical Center verifying his aunt was a double amputee, reports the Boston Globe. The application "seemed a little unusual" to One Boston, which forwarded the claim to the AG, who subsequently discovered that not only had his aunt not received surgery, she wasn't even alive. "[Mattier] sought to take these funds away from real victims of the Marathon attack and from the thousands of people who had so generously given to help those who truly need it," says the AG. (More One Boston Fund stories.)
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