Engineer Receives 28 Months For Nearly $200K Disability Fraud

A Spotsylvania jury has recommended a 28-month prison for a county man who defrauded an insurance company out of nearly $200,000 in disability payments while he was working in another state. Farshad Bigdeli, 60, was convicted last week of three counts of obtaining money by false pretense. He will be formally sentenced on Sept. 27 in Spotsylvania Circuit Court. According to the evidence presented by prosecutors Ryan Mehaffey and John Hyde, Bigdeli worked as an engineer for Volkert & Associates in Northern Virginia from 2006 to 2008. He was making about $91,000 a year when he was fired.