A North Carolina man was sentenced to prison today for health care fraud related to the submission of false claims to Medicaid and for tax evasion, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Matthew G.T. Martin for the Middle District of North Carolina.
U.S. District Court Judge N. Carlton Tilley, Jr. of the Middle District of North Carolina sentenced Haydn Patrick Thomas, a resident of Durham, North Carolina, to a total sentence of 78 months in prison. On Sept. 5, 2018, Thomas pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement relating to health care matters and one count of tax evasion for tax year 2014.
According to the documents filed with the court, Catinia Farrington owned Durham County Mental Health and Behavioral Health Services LLC (DCMBHS) in Durham, North Carolina. From 2011 through 2015, Farrington submitted thousands of false claims to Medicaid for services that were not performed. The false claims resulted in Medicaid paying approximately $4 million to DCMBHS. During the relevant period, Thomas worked as an office manager for an oral surgeon and provided Farrington with the names and Medicaid identification numbers of dental patients to facilitate the scheme.
In addition, Thomas evaded income taxes on the more than $1.4 million dollars he earned from DCMBHS by filing false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and transferring money to various business bank accounts from which he paid his personal expenses. The resulting tax loss was approximately $518,000.
In addition to the term of imprisonment imposed, Thomas was order to serve three years of supervised release and to pay restitution in the amount of $3,950,656 to the North Carolina Fund for Medical Assistance and $518,997 to the IRS.
On March 1, 2019, Judge Tilley sentenced Farrington to 60 months in prison on one count of health care fraud conspiracy and one count of tax evasion. She was also ordered to pay over $4 million in total restitution to the North Carolina Fund for Medical Assistant and the IRS.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Martin commended special agents of the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, Office of Inspector General, who conducted the investigation, and Assistant United States Attorney Robert Hamilton (now retired), Trial Attorney Mara Strier of the Tax Division and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Heavner of the Medicaid Investigations Division of the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office, who prosecuted the case.
Source: Department of Justice. This site is made available by China PR Agency – Professional Chinese Press Release Distribution service, Great China and Asia PR service provider. 【专业中文新闻稿发布，大中华地区及亚洲网络公关服务商】。