SC man faked medical bills to scam over $100K from insurance companies, cops say

A Richland County man was arrested Wednesday on charges that he doctored, and faked, medical bills to get more than $100,000 in payouts from insurance companies, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

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Jacob Nathaniel Lockhart, a 38-year-old Columbia resident, was charged with three counts of presenting a false claim for insurance payment (value $10,000 or more) and a single charge of presenting a false claim for insurance payment (value more than $2,000, but less than $10,000), SLED said in a news release.

The scam targeted two insurance companies, Aetna and Jefferson Insurance Company, arrest warrants show.

From July 2022 to January 2023 Lockhart “knowingly, assisted, solicited and/or conspired to submit more than 10 false claims for insurance payment to Aetna,” where he altered bills by inflating the amount charged,” an arrest warrant said. Lockhart also falsely created an additional 11 medical bills, and in total, this scam totaled more than $6,000, an arrest warrant shows.

Lockhart continued the fraud scheme, filing even more false claims for larger payouts, according to arrest warrants.

In January 2023, Lockhart submitted more than 30 false claims to Aetna where he altered his therapy bills to inflate the amount charged and created fictitious bills for therapy sessions that never took place for a payout of more than $14,000, an arrest warrant shows.

More than 80 false claims were submitted to Aetna from January 2024 to April 2025, where Lockhart is accused of altering or faking medical bills for more than $100,000 in payouts, according to an arrest warrant.

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And on May 19, 2025, he filed a claim with Jefferson for a doctor’s visit that didn’t occur for a travel insurance payout of more than $20,000, an arrest warrant says.

Lockhart was booked into the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center on Wednesday, SLED said. Information about his bond wasn’t available, but on Thursday he wasn’t listed on the jail’s inmate roster.

Information about what happened to the $140,000-plus in fraudulent insurance payouts was not available, and there was no word if that money was spent.

SLED was asked to investigate by the South Carolina Department of Insurance, which will lead the prosecution of Lockhart.