Baton Rouge Man Indicted for Stealing from Health Care Centers

Larry Butler accused trying to steal almost $300,000.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted a 49-year-old Baton Rouge man, already accused of stealing thousands of dollars from the Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, with trying to steal almost $300,000 from other health care centers.

U.S. Attorney Walt Green says Larry Butler was arrested in Tacoma, Washington, on Monday almost a month after Baton Rouge police issued a warrant for his arrest. He's accused of charging over $16,000 for personal items using Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center's credit cards.

He had been employed as a director of the facilities at the center, and the discrepancies only came to light after he announced he was leaving the center for another job.

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But now the U.S. Attorney's Office says that incident was a small fraction of a far larger scheme.

Green tells The Advocate Butler had been orchestrating a scheme since July 2013 to defraud hundreds of thousands of dollars from other institutions.

Besides Mary Bird Perkins, the indictment says Butler also worked at Louisiana Health Cooperative, a nonprofit health insurance cooperative in Covington, where he also used credit cards in that company's name to get cash advances and purchase items for his personal use.

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Butler is accused of using the money for traveling, food and furniture.

The indictment against Butler includes wire fraud, false representation of a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft.

It was unclear whether Butler has an attorney.

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