Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that STEVEN RAWLINS, a former Chief Financial Officer to two healthcare services companies based outside Nashville, Tennessee, was found guilty today of engaging in a scheme to defraud that yielded over $8 million in ill-gotten gains. Following an 11-day trial conducted before U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan, a jury found that RAWLINS, as the acting Chief Financial Officer for both privately-held healthcare companies, abused his authority to withdraw company funds for payment of legitimate business expenses and tax obligations by, among other things, using such funds to pay personal expenses incurred by RAWLINS, his family, and his associates.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “As a unanimous jury has found, Steven Rawlins abused his position of trust to steal from the companies whose finances he was entrusted to manage. He siphoned off more than $8 million of company money and spent it lavishly on himself, his family, and his friends, paying for a 12,000-square-foot home, Tiffany jewelry, sports cars and Yankees luxury suites. Now he stands convicted by a jury of federal crimes.”

According to the Criminal Information filed on June 16, 2015, other court documents, and the evidence presented at trial:

In or around 2005, RAWLINS was retained as an outside consultant by a private healthcare services company, which is headquartered in Tennessee (“Company-1”), to assist with financing and accounting matters. RAWLINS’s responsibilities included securing financing for Company-1 and facilitating tax payments. During that time period, RAWLINS was retained by another private healthcare services company, which at the time had operations in Florida and New York (“Company-2”), to perform a similar role. As part of his responsibilities, RAWLINS was authorized to bill both Company-1 and Company-2 for legitimate business expenses incurred in connection with his services. By 2009, RAWLINS had been appointed as acting Chief Financial Officer for both companies.

RAWLINS abused his authority to withdraw company funds and ultimately misappropriated more than $8 million, which he used to pay personal expenses incurred by himself, his family, and his associates. For instance, as part of his responsibilities as a consultant to Company-1, RAWLINS represented that he would make the necessary tax payments owed by Company-1 to the State of Tennessee. From 2011 to 2012, RAWLINS withdrew approximately $850,000 from Company-1’s bank accounts, purportedly in order to pay Company-1’s outstanding tax liabilities to Tennessee. In reality, during that time period, Company-1 owed less than $85,000 in applicable Tennessee state taxes; RAWLINS converted the vast majority of the funds to his own use. Moreover, from 2011 to 2013, RAWLINS caused approximately $4 million to be withdrawn from a Company-1 bank account in order to pay bills associated with RAWLINS’s American Express credit card accounts. Those American Express accounts were in turn used to pay for numerous personal expenses incurred by RAWLINS, or those associated with him, including payments to a real estate development company that built RAWLINS a 12,000-square-foot home; payments for luxury suite access for the Tennessee Titans, Nashville Predators, and New York Yankees; payments for Tiffany jewelry; and payments to car dealerships including Ferrari, Porsche, Maserati, and Mercedes.

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RAWLINS, 58, of Brentwood, Tennessee, was convicted of one count of wire fraud, the sole count in the Information. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a maximum term of three years of supervised release, and a fine of the greatest of $250,000, or twice the gross pecuniary gain derived from the offense or twice the gross pecuniary loss to the victim. The maximum potential sentence in this case is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge. RAWLINS is scheduled to be sentenced on March 18, 2016.

Mr. Bharara praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He added that the investigation is continuing.

The charges were brought in connection with the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. The task force was established to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. With more than 20 federal agencies, 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices, and state and local partners, it is the broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud. Since its formation, the task force has made great strides in facilitating increased investigation and prosecution of financial crimes; enhancing coordination and cooperation among federal, state and local authorities; addressing discrimination in the lending and financial markets; and conducting outreach to the public, victims, financial institutions and other organizations. Since fiscal year 2009, the Justice Department has filed over 18,000 financial fraud cases against more than 25,000 defendants. For more information on the task force, please visit www.StopFraud.gov.

This case is being handled by the Office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Bauer and Andrew J. DeFilippis are in charge of the prosecution, and Margaret S. Graham is in charge of the forfeiture aspects of the case.