5 Health Care Execs Convicted In $1.9 Billion Fraud
newsnet5 ^ | 3/13 | AP
Posted on 03/13/2008 3:06:35 PM PDT by darkangel82
5 Health Care Execs Convicted In $1.9 Billion Fraud
UPDATED: 5:23 pm EDT March 13, 2008
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A federal jury on Thursday convicted five former executives of a health care company in a $1.9 billion fraud scheme. The officials worked with National Century Financial Enterprises, described as the nation's largest health care financing firm before its 2002 bankruptcy.
The five -- some of the company's highest ranking executives -- were convicted of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud.
The defendants and their attorneys listened without emotion as U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley read the verdicts one by one. Some of the defendants' family members sitting in the courtroom appeared stunned.
Those convicted were: Donald Ayers, the company's former chief operating officer; James Dierker, the company's former vice president of client development; Roger Faulkenberry, a former executive vice president who raised money from investors; Rebecca Parrett, the company's former vice chairman; and Randy Speer, National Century's former chief financial officer.
Jurors, deliberating since Tuesday, weighed five weeks of testimony on complex financial issues and pored over hundreds of documents.
The defendants face a variety of possible prison terms, which could go as high as 30 years behind bars depending on the number of counts they were convicted of. However, the actual prison term would be far less under federal sentencing guidelines.