{"id":38438,"date":"2025-09-20T10:20:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T15:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=38438"},"modified":"2025-09-20T10:20:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T15:20:03","slug":"former-north-carolina-postal-employee-pleads-guilty-to-workers-compensation-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2025\/09\/20\/former-north-carolina-postal-employee-pleads-guilty-to-workers-compensation-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Former North Carolina Postal Employee Pleads Guilty to Workers\u2019 Compensation Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"

9\/19\/25 – ASHEVILLE, N.C. \u2013 Sandra \u201cSandy\u201d Cannon Throneburg, 74, of Morganton, N.C., appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge W. Carleton Metcalf today and pleaded guilty to workers\u2019 compensation fraud, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.<\/p>\n

Kathleen Woodson, Executive Special Agent in Charge of the United States Postal Service, Office of the Inspector General (USPS OIG) for the Mid-Atlantic Area Field Office (MAAFO), which oversees Charlotte, joins U.S. Attorney Ferguson in making today\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years, Throneburg lied about her ability to return to work to keep receiving payments from the federal workers\u2019 compensation program,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Ferguson. \u201cMy office will continue to work to protect the workers compensation program for people who truly need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost postal employees who collect workers\u2019 compensation benefits have legitimate claims. A small percentage, however, abuse the system and cost the Postal Service millions of dollars in fraudulent claims and enforcement costs. Therefore, USPS OIG Special Agents will continue to relentlessly pursue those identified as fraudulently collecting workers\u2019 compensation funds from the Postal Service,\u201d said Executive Special Agent in Charge Woodson.<\/p>\n

According to filed court documents and the plea hearing, Throneburg was employed by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) as a rural carrier in Valdese, N.C. On or about September 8, 2015, Throneburg sustained an injury at work while performing her duties. Throneburg stopped working for the USPS because of her injury. On October 23, 2015, she began receiving compensation benefits, in the form of medical benefits and disability compensation administered by the U.S. Department of Labor\u2019s (DOL) Office of Workers\u2019 Compensation Programs (OWCP) for employees covered by the Federal Employees\u2019 Compensation Act (FECA).<\/p>\n

In order to receive and maintain FECA benefits, Throneburg was required to report, among other things, all employment, self-employment, involvement in business enterprises, and volunteer work. On or about September 24, 2020, Throneburg completed, signed, and submitted a DOL OWCP Form EN 1032 that contained materially false responses to questions related to her employment status. For example, as Throneburg admitted in court today, she gave negative responses to questions related to whether she had worked for any other employer or was self-employed. Contrary to statements Throneburg made on the form, between 2016 and 2020, Throneburg had worked for an accounting firm where she performed clerical duties and had received compensation. According to filed court documents, Throneburg failed to disclose to OWCP or USPS that she was employed by and receiving earned income from the accounting firm, while also receiving over $261,000 in workers\u2019 compensation benefits, and OWCP had paid over $278,000 for Throneburg\u2019s medical bills related to her alleged medical condition.<\/p>\n

Throneburg pleaded guilty to knowingly and willfully making a false statement on a report. The maximum penalty for the offense is five years in prison. After the plea hearing, Throneburg was released on bond. A sentencing date has not been set.<\/p>\n

The USPS OIG investigated the case.<\/p>\n

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth M. Smith of the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in Charlotte is in charge of the prosecution.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9\/19\/25 – ASHEVILLE, N.C. \u2013 Sandra \u201cSandy\u201d Cannon Throneburg, 74, of Morganton, N.C., appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge W. Carleton Metcalf today and pleaded guilty to workers\u2019 compensation fraud, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Kathleen Woodson, Executive Special Agent in Charge of the United States Postal Service, Office […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,72,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-theftandfraud","category-postal-crime","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38439,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38438\/revisions\/38439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}