FLORIDA MAN
SENTENCED TO $5.7 MILLION IN RESTITUTION
AND IMPRISONMENT ON FEDERAL HEALTH CARE FRAUD
AND PENSION EMBEZZLEMENT CONVICTIONS
Des Moines, Iowa
- On September 11, 2007, Floyd W. Seibert, age 61, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,
was sentenced to 46 months imprisonment on a charge of Medicare fraud
and 46 months imprisonment on a charge of embezzling from his employees
pension fund, with the sentences to be served concurrently, announced
United States Attorney Matthew G. Whitaker. United States District Court
Judge James E. Gritzner also ordered Seibert to pay restitution in the
amount of $2,438,141.00 regarding the Medicare fraud and $3,281,199.22
regarding the employee pension fund, for a total restitution amount of
$5,719,340.22. Seibert is subject to forfeiture of his real and personal
property in the amount of $2,700,000.00. The Judge further ordered Seibert
to serve a 3 year term of supervised release following his imprisonment
and to pay a $200 special assessment to the Crime Victim Fund.
The Judge ordered that during the term of supervised release following
his imprisonment, Seibert is subject to credit restrictions; cannot make
purchases in excess of $500.00 without approval of the U.S. Probation
Office; is subject to garnishment of wages, tax refunds and any other
government payments; and must maintain employment approved by the U. S.
Probation Office. Seibert is released with supervision by the U. S. Probation
Office pending designation by the Federal Bureau of Prisons on or about
November 15, 2007, of the federal prison in which he is to serve his sentence.
He must then report as directed by the United States Marshal's Service
for the serving of his imprisonment.
Seibert was charged
in a Superseding Indictment filed in Des Moines on January 27, 2005. On
January 12, 2006, he pled guilty to one count of this indictment relating
to Medicare fraud. The plea agreement provides that the loss amounts from
all of the conduct charged in the indictment is taken into account for
sentencing and restitution. On October 12, 2006, Seibert waived indictment
and pled guilty in the Middle District of Florida to the embezzlement
from his employee's pension fund. That case was subsequently transferred
to the Southern District of Iowa for disposition.
Floyd Seibert owned
and operated business entities in Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Florida,
with his main office located in Florida. Although he was involved in other
businesses, Seibert's main business concerned the operation of Medicare-certified
home health agencies and the selling of goods and services related thereto.
Among the entities owned and controlled by Seibert were: Extended Care
Services of Oklahoma (ECSO); Central Texas Extended Care Services (CTECS);
Central States Pharmacy (CSP); Western Medical Supplies and Equipment
(WMSE); Dixie Diamond Ranch (DDR); Rio Frio Outfitters; Health Care International
of Nevada (HCI); and Health Care International Holdings, British Virgin
Islands..
The United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Iowa
became involved in the Medicare fraud case because the agency which paid
Seibert's Medicare reimbursement claims, CAHABA Safeguard Administrator,
was located in Des Moines, Iowa. The United States Attorney's Office for
the Southern District of Iowa became involved in the pension embezzlement
case because that case was transferred from the Federal Court in the Middle
District of Florida, to the Southern District of Iowa. The pension fund
for the employees of Seibert's various businesses was administered in
Seibert's Florida office.
Seibert accomplished
the Medicare fraud in a variety of ways. He concealed his relationship
with his various business entities, even to the point of using one or
more fictitious identities for his business dealings. This included the
fraudulent identity "Martin Mesquite", for which Seibert used
a fraudulent photo ID, a fraudulent address, and a fraudulent social security
number.
Seibert knowingly
and willfully "sold" goods and services from one of his companies
to another of his companies at inflated costs, and improperly passed the
inflated costs on to Medicare. Seibert also fraudulently passed on to
Medicare costs from his businesses which were not related to Medicare.
For example, costs associated with the operation of the Dixie Diamond
Ranch were falsely shown as Medicare costs and passed on to Medicare.
The Medicare fraud occurred in 1997, 1998, and 1999.
In addition to his Medicare-certified home health business, Seibert owned
and operated the Dixie Diamond Ranch, a 694.84 acre property located near
Bandera, Texas. The ranch housed exotic animals used for hunting purposes,
along with horses and a warehouse. The warehouse was used for storage
of business and financial records for Seibert's other businesses. Ranch
employees were paid by the Medicare-certified home health agency in Florida.
The ranch is subject to forfeiture as a result's of the government's criminal
enforcement action, with the proceeds of the sale to be applied first
to the restitution owed to the pension plan victims.
From approximately
April of 1999, through October of 2001, Seibert served as trustee of his
employees' medical plan and pension plan. During this time, he fraudulently
transferred $3.85 million from the medical and pension plans to a shell
corporation, Health Care International of Nevada (HCI), a Nevada corporation
created by Seibert . HCI had no revenue or income of its own, being funded
almost entirely by the fraudulent transfer of funds from the medical and
pension plans of Seibert's employees. Almost immediately after the monies
were transferred from the medical and pension plans to HCI, HCI transferred
the funds, mainly in the form of loans, to other of Seibert's businesses,
in particular Central Home Care Services, Inc. and related Medicare-certified
home health agencies. In part to accomplish this, Seibert relied on the
use of the fictitious identity, "Martin Mesquite". Seibert improperly
included as expenses on his cost reports submitted to Medicare, the interest
payments on the "bonds" issued in exchange for the transfer
of funds from HCI to his other companies.
This case was prosecuted
in the Southern District of Iowa by the United States Attorney's Office
for the Southern District of Iowa. The investigation regarding Medicare
fraud was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Department
of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; and CAHABA
Safeguard Administrators. Prior to the transfer of its case to the Southern
District of Iowa, the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District
of Florida prosecuted the case relating to the embezzlement of funds from
the employees' pension plan. The investigation regarding the pension plan
was conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor.
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