HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane’s office today announced the arrest of a daughter and mother from Jefferson County charged with defrauding the Victims Compensation Assistance Program, a state program created to provide financial assistance to crime victims.

The arrests of Monica Greene, 26, and Melissa L. Greene-Balbo, 46, are the result of an investigation by the Office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations.

According to investigators, Greene was physically assaulted and subsequently received $3,792 for moving expenses and lost wages that she was not entitled to by submitting false documentation to VCAP. Greene-Balbo, Greene’s mother, is accused of conspiring with her daughter to carry out the fraud, in part by providing false documentation, according to investigators.

Criminal complaints filed in the case allege Greene submitted a claim to VCAP in which she stated she was under contract to work as a home healthcare worker. The documents Greene submitted to be paid for lost wages from this position included a forged signature, investigators allege.

Additionally, investigators said they learned there were no records to support Greene’s claim that she provided home healthcare for the client named on her claim. It was determined that Greene-Balbo was actually the sole home healthcare worker for the client her daughter claimed to be providing services for.

Greene also is accused of submitting a $1,000 false claim for moving expenses and a separate $6,056 false claim for babysitting services. Investigators determined these were fraudulent claims, in part by interviewing a witness who verified the claims were in fact fraudulent, according to criminal complaints filed in the case.

Greene and Greene-Balbo, both of 775 Big Prescottville Road, Punxsutawney, are charged with two counts each of forgery, three counts each of criminal conspiracy and one count each of unsworn falsification to authorities and theft by deception. Greene is also charged with one count of filing a false claim.

Bail was set for each woman at $10,000 unsecured during preliminary arraignments Thursday. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 20.

The defendants will be prosecuted by Deputy Attorney General Courtney Butterfield of the Office of Attorney General’s Criminal Prosecutions Section.