Former Hospital CFO Sentenced to 33 Months in Federal Prison for Fraud Scheme
| U.S. Attorney’s Office July 11, 2011 |
David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that WILLIAM ROE, 55, formerly of Archbald, Pennsylvania, and Wilton, Connecticut, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant in Hartford to 33 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for defrauding two hospitals where he was employed of approximately $200,000.
According to court documents and statements made in court, ROE was employed as chief financial officer (CFO) of St. Rita’s Hospital in Lima, Ohio, from 2006 through early 2009, and as CFO of Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Connecticut, from early 2009 through August 2010. ROE also created a company called Cycle Software Solutions. Beginning in July 2008 and continuing for approximately two years, ROE used Cycle Software Solutions to defraud both St. Rita’s Hospital and Danbury Hospital by billing the hospitals for software and services that were never provided.
Specifically, ROE billed and received from St. Rita’s Hospital approximately $75,000 for services that were never provided, and billed and received from Danbury Hospital approximately $95,000 for software that was never provided. ROE also billed Danbury Hospital for an additional $25,000, the payment on which was stopped.
On January 4, 2011, ROE pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud stemming from this scheme.
Today, Judge Bryant ordered ROE to pay restitution of $75,000 to St. Rita’s Hospital, and $141,166 to Danbury Hospital. The Danbury Hospital restitution figure includes an additional $46,166 that ROE improperly received from the hospital.
On August 17, 2010, ROE was arrested on a federal criminal complaint stemming from this fraud scheme. He was released on bond from September 9, 2010, until March 29, 2011, when ROE’s bond was revoked after Judge Bryant determined that ROE had violated a condition of his bond, which prohibited ROE from using the Internet, by sending his probation officer an e-mail using his wife’s e-mail account, and under his wife’s name.
This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Rahul Kale and Senior Litigation Counsel Richard J. Schechter.