Two Women Sentenced in Health Care Case
Defendants Also Ordered to Pay Nearly $1 Million in Restitution

LUBBOCK, TX—Two women who worked in the health care industry, and who each pled guilty in January to one count of theft in connection with health care and aiding and abetting in relation to a fake invoice scheme they ran, were sentenced today, announced acting U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas.  U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings sentenced  Laura Cullers Minor, 52, of Abilene, Texas, and her co-defendant, Sheri Lynn Mitchell, a/k/a Sheri Samuels and Sheri Dawes, 48, of Cleveland, Tennessee, each to 30 months in federal prison.  In addition, they are jointly and severally liable to pay $905,166.05 in restitution.  Judge Cummings ordered that both Minor and Mitchell surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on June  5, 2009.

Minor was an employee of Hendrick Medical Center, d/b/a Hendrick Health Systems (HHS) in Abilene.  She was originally employed as an assistant in the Physician Relations Department and later became the Director of Physician Recruiting for HHS.  In early 2002, Minor came to know Sheri Mitchell who owned her own physician recruiting business, Physician Source.  They eventually agreed that HHS would contract with Mitchell to provide outside recruiting services to help Minor recruit new physicians and specialties for HHS.  HHS was to pay Mitchell for these services as they were performed.

According to documents filed in Court when they entered their guilty pleas, beginning in April 2007 and continuing to November 2007, Minor and Mitchell engaged in a fake invoice scheme to defraud HHS.  Minor would tell Mitchell what items should be billed and in what amounts, and then Mitchell would create and send the invoices.  On some occasions, Minor generated and submitted the invoices herself.  Both Minor and Mitchell knew that the work represented on the invoices had not been performed at all or had not been performed as represented. 

Once an invoice was received, Minor would submit it to HHS for payment and HHS would cut the check.  At times, Minor would personally pick up the check from the accounting department and send it via FedEx to Mitchell, who would  then “kickback” a portion of the check, ranging from 25% - 50% of the payment, to Minor.

From 2002 to 2007, HHS paid Mitchell $851,416.83 as a result of the fraudulent invoices.  Of that amount, Minor received $283,126 in kickbacks.

Acting U.S. Attorney Jacks praised the excellent investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and thanked HHS for its cooperation in the investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Burch of the Lubbock, Texas, U.S. Attorneys Office prosecuted the case.