Jackson Sentencing

BATON ROUGE, LA – Acting United States Attorney Walt Green announced that LINDA M. JACKSON, age 51, of Plaquemine, Louisiana, was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge Brian A. Jackson to serve sixty (60) months in federal prison for her role in a two-year health care fraud scheme that she perpetrated in the Baton Rouge area.

JACKSON previously pled guilty, on February 28, 2012, to a conspiracy to commit health care fraud. In her plea agreement, the defendant had admitted that she worked with others to defraud the Medicare program over a two-year period of time, from April 2007 through April 2009. During her scheme, JACKSON operated a company in Plaquemine, Louisiana called A&A Durable Medical Supply (“A&A”), and used the company to submit numerous false reimbursement claims to Medicare for items that JACKSON had never provided. JACKSON also admitted that she furthered the scheme by preparing and completing false documents, such as delivery tickets and physician order forms, and by directing other A&A employees to prepare similar false documents. Through her false claims, JACKSON attempted to obtain more than $2.2 million from Medicare.

At this morning’s sentencing, in addition to being sentenced to serve 60 months in prison, LINDA JACKSON was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of approximately $297,523. She was ordered to serve a two-year term of supervised release following her release from imprisonment. She will also be ordered to forfeit an additional $297,523 in proceeds from her health care fraud scheme. At the conclusion of the sentencing, the Court ordered JACKSON to begin serving her sentence immediately and remanded JACKSON to the custody of the United States Marshal.

Other defendants convicted and sentenced as a result of the investigation into A&A Durable Medical Supply include UNIECESCO SMITH and EUNICE SPARROW, both of Plaquemine, Louisiana, who were sentenced in June 2012 to serve federal prison terms of 14 months and 12 months and 1 day, respectively, for their roles in this health care fraud scheme.

Acting United States Attorney Walt Green stated, “This is another in a long line of successful prosecutions – and lengthy prison sentences – for health care fraud in our district. This office remains committed to protecting the integrity of our health care system, and we will continue to work with our federal and state law enforcement partners to enforce the federal health care laws. This sentence should serve as a deterrent for others who would attempt to defraud Medicare for their own personal greed.”

“Today’s 60-month sentence places greedy Medicare providers on notice,” said Special Agent–in-Charge Mike Fields, United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, Dallas Regional Office. “Our special agents and their law enforcement partners will vigorously investigate health care providers who cheat and loot the Medicare Trust Fund.”

The investigation of this matter was conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, with valuable assistance from the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Alan Stevens and Chris Dippel. The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Louisiana and the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.