Former Iowa public defender sentenced to federal prison for healthcare fraud

A federal judge sentenced a 49-year-old Omaha woman to five months in prison last Thursday after the woman pleaded guilty in June to fraudulently billing Medicaid and other insurers for medical products meant for patients who never received them.

Cassi Wigington also must pay $445,255.37 in restitution, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Rossiter ruled. Wigington will be on supervised release for three years after the conclusion of her prison sentence.

Wigington's sentence stems from a six-year period where, through her company New Image, she fraudulently billed patients, health insurance companies and benefits providers for breast prostheses that were never delivered to the patients who had undergone mastectomies.

Insurance companies and benefits providers defrauded by Wigington included Nebraska Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, Ironworkers Intermountain Health & Welfare Trust Fund and United Healthcare.

Twenty-five patients never received the products Wigington had charged to their respective insurers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Lynch wrote in a court document.

Law enforcement began investigating Wigington's fraud in summer 2022. Her attorney, Sean Conway, said Wigington immediately began cooperating and worked to make things right.

Wigington's fraudulent activity does not reflect "the person Cassi is today," Conway said. At the time of the fraudulent activity, Wigington was suffering from substance abuse issues, Conway said.

Wigington, in a tearful statement, said in court she made "serious errors in judgment" and fully accepts responsibility for her conduct. Wigington also noted she is the primary caregiver for her children and mother.

Although a probation officer recommended Wigington receive five years of probation in lieu of prison, Lynch pointed to Wigington's 2023 shoplifting arrest in Sarpy County as he argued for a one-year prison sentence.

Iowa Capital Dispatch reported Wigington's shoplifting consisted of stealing more than 300 items, which were worth $2,721, across 13 trips from the Hy-Vee in Gretna. The outlet reported Sarpy County prosecutors dismissed the charges after Wigington agreed to enter a diversion program.

In sentencing Wigington, Rossiter agreed with Lynch that Wigington's conduct warranted prison rather than probation due to the length of her scheme.

"This went on for a long time," Rossiter said, adding the patients Wigington defrauded were "already under a great deal of stress."

Wigington was a former public defender, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported. Her shoplifting arrest led the Iowa Supreme Court to suspend her law license in June 2025. The suspension was lifted last December.

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