PANAMA CITY — A 44-year-old Chipley man has been indicted on six counts of wire fraud after he allegedly duped care providers at a Chipley hospital into providing elective treatment worth about $250,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Eon L. Menckeberg, also known as Prince, appeared before Magistrate Judge Larry A. Bodiford at the federal courthouse in Panama City on Thursday. Bodiford scheduled Menckeberg for trial beginning Dec. 8.
The indictment alleges Menckeberg hurt his ankle in 2012 and received treatment from Jackson County Hospital in Marianna. Months later, he went to Northwest Florida Community Hospital in Chipley seeking elective hyperbaric-oxygen treatment for the injury to his ankle.
To convince the hospital to provide the treatment, he said he had health insurance through Lloyd’s of London, a prominent specialty insurer, and he had an unidentified person fraudulently confirm to the hospital that Lloyd’s had authorized the treatment, which is valued at approximately $244,901.50.