When Amey Molloy asked the compensation fund for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing to help her pay medical bills, the Portland resident described how she was injured: When the bombs went off, she and her teenage daughter were caught in the stampede. As she ran in flip-flops, someone stomped on her foot and broke bones, ultimately leading to two surgeries costing more than $20,000.

But a lengthy investigation by the Massachusetts State Police determined that Molloy was actually on her cellphone somewhere near Cousins Island in Yarmouth when the bombs went off at 2:49 p.m. on April 15, 2013, authorities said. Her real medical records show that Molloy had arthritis and bone spurs, and her foot had been bothering her for months, if not years, before the bombings.

Amey Molloy

Molloy is charged with defrauding The One Fund Boston, which was set up to help the families of the three people who died in the bombing, those who lost limbs, and those who suffered less visible injuries such as hearing loss, chronic tinnitus and post traumatic stress disorder.

Molloy, 49, was arrested Wednesday morning at her home at Dingley Court in Portland’s Deering Center neighborhood and was being held in the Cumberland County Jail on a fugitive from justice warrant.

After a hearing tentatively set for Friday in Maine, Molloy will appear in a Massachusetts court to face a felony charge of larceny and attempted larceny.

“She allegedly stole money from the thousands of people who had so generously donated to help the real victims of the marathon bombing,” Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said in announcing Molloy’s arrest.

INITIAL FUND PAYMENT OF $8,000

Molloy first submitted a claim in June 2013 to The One Fund Boston, according to an affidavit in support of a search warrant for her house. The affidavit also included her emails to the fund.

“I was at the marathon that day with my daughter (15). When the second bomb exploded we were caught up in a crowd of people trying to run, including us,” she wrote. “Someone as desperate as we were stomped on my right foot (I was wearing flip-flops). The pain was incredible, but fear and shear (sic) adrenaline took over to keep running with my daughter.”

She described how the pain worsened and she eventually needed surgery.

“Meanwhile, I have missed so much work and the bill is more than I can handle. I am a single working mom (dental hygienist) raising a 15-year-old daughter,” she said.

Molloy was issued $8,000 from the fund, becoming one of the 125 people who received that amount to cover outpatient treatment for bombing-related injuries. Those with more serious injuries received more.

MORE SCRUTINY BEFORE MORE MONEY

A second round of disbursements was authorized in 2014. Molloy again submitted a claim, this time for the surgical repair of a damaged hip that she said was a consequence of the initial foot injury. The claim was for $12,500.

But this round of requests was subjected to a higher level of scrutiny after two cases of fraud were uncovered in the first round of disbursements, the affidavit said. In May, a New York woman was sentenced to 2½ to three years in prison for collecting a fraudulent $480,000 claim. In June, two brothers were sentenced to three years in prison for attempting to defraud The One Fund out of more than $2 million by submitting a false claim on behalf of their dead aunt, the statement said.

The fund now included a requirement that a medical privacy waiver form be signed so the fund could verify the medical claims.

Fund administrators emailed Molloy, noting that the forms giving her doctors permission to release medical records hadn’t been included in her submission. She apologized for the mistake, but then provided only permission to speak to Maine Medical Center about her records. Although she later submitted the permission form for her doctors and specialists, the delays raised a red flag and the case was referred to Coakley’s office for investigation.

CHARGE: MEDICAL RECORDS ALTERED

Investigators contacted her doctors and learned that the medical records had been altered to make the Boston Marathon the cause of the foot injury when, in fact, Molloy had been having foot pain after a fall in 2010, according to Maine Med records quoted in the affidavit.

The second claim wasn’t paid.

“Subsequent investigation revealed that portions of the medical records attached to Molloy’s first and second claims were not authentic, and that she was not treated for any bombing-related injuries as indicated in the claims she prepared and submitted,” said the statement from Coakley’s office.

Molloy did have foot surgery on April 19, 2013, and had hip surgery on Aug. 20, 2013, but there was no reference in the real medical records to the bombings.

Police say brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev set off makeshift bombs made from pressure cookers near the finish line of the marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 260. Boston ordered a citywide curfew as police hunted for the suspects, who also were accused of killing MIT Police Officer Sean A. Collier.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed by law enforcement. The trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, charged with killing people using a weapon of mass destruction, recently got underway in Boston.

EVIDENCE FROM PHONE RECORDS

In their investigation of Molloy, police tracked cellphone records for both Molloy and her daughter and found they were both used in Maine on the day of the bombings. Molloy’s phone signal was picked up at a cell tower near Drinkwater Point in Yarmouth at the time the bombs went off, police said in the search warrant affidavit.

Police searched Molloy’s house, intent on seizing computers, cellphones and paper records related to the false claims, the affidavit said.

The statement from Coakley’s office makes no reference to a motive for the alleged fraud, but the affidavit notes that when police traced the calls made to and from Molloy’s phone on the day of the bombings, they logged a series of calls to several medical offices apparently linked to her pending surgery, as well as an incoming call from a Massachusetts collection agency, which went to voice mail.

ONE FUND PAID OUT $80 MILLION

Molloy’s LinkedIn page said she is looking for a job in the dental health field, although the page was deleted after the announcement of her arrest.

Molloy has no criminal record in Maine, according to the State Bureau of Identification. She declined a request from the Portland Press Herald for an interview.

Although she is not entitled to bail as a fugitive from justice, Molloy could be released from custody once she has been issued a summons to appear in a Massachusetts court.

The One Fund Boston was set up by then-Gov. Deval Patrick and then-Boston Mayor Thomas Menino the day after the bombings to help compensate people who sustained injuries. The fund is no longer active and was discontinued after raising $80 million from more than 200,000 individuals, businesses and community organizations. According to statements released by the fund, all the money was distributed – there were no overhead expenses – to more than 230 victims and their families.

A spokesman for Coakley said he could not confirm or deny whether there were any other criminal investigations associated with defrauding the fund.

In a statement released after Molloy’s arrest, The One Fund Boston said that her initial claim was deemed suspect after an independent audit performed at the fund’s request, though no action was taken at that point. When she submitted her second claim, it was forwarded to Coakley’s office.

“We are grateful for the dedication and commitment of the Attorney General and her team in ensuring the generosity of donors and the mission of the One Fund is protected,” said fund president Jim Gallagher. “It is unfortunate and unconscionable that someone would willfully seek to receive a benefit from generous donations directed toward those who sustained life changing injuries and effects of that horrendous attack.”

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