Owner of hospice companies sentenced to 20-years in prison for $150 million health care fraud and money laundering scheme
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A corporate executive has been ordered to serve 20 years in prison after his conviction related to falsely telling thousands of patients with long-term incurable diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and dementia, they had less than six months to live and subsequently enrolling them in hospice programs.
A federal jury in McAllen, Texas, convicted Rodney Mesquias, 48, of San Antonio, Texas. The one-month trial in November 2019 was one of the first criminal hospice fraud prosecutions the Department of Justice has presented to a federal jury.
Doctor Sentenced to Prison for Unlawfully Distributing Controlled Substances Details Written by DOJ
Lexington, Kentucky - A Kentucky doctor and his former office manager were sentenced to 60 and 32 months respectively in prison Wednesday for their roles in unlawfully distributing controlled substances during a time when the defendants did not have a legitimate medical practice.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Robert M. Duncan Jr. of the Eastern District of Kentucky, Special Agent in Charge Derrick Jackson of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Atlanta Field Office, Special Agent in Charge D. Christopher Evans of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Detroit Field Division, and Executive Director W. Bryan Hubbard of the Kentucky Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) made the announcement.
Register staff report
Dec 11, 2020
A Kentucky doctor and his former office manager were sentenced to 60 and 32 months in prison on Wednesday for their roles in unlawfully distributing controlled substances during a time when the defendants did not have a legitimate medical practice, a press release stated.
Scotty Akers, M.D., 48, a licensed physician, and Serissa Akers, 33, his wife and former office manager, both of Pikeville, Kentucky, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert E. Wier of the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Judge Wier also ordered Scotty Akers to forfeit $12,275.
Both defendants pleaded guilty on Aug. 7, 2020 to charges of unlawfully distributing controlled substances, the release states.