Two former executives of a Springfield, Missouri-centered charity pleaded guilty yesterday to their roles in a multimillion-dollar general public corruption plan that associated embezzlement and bribes compensated to numerous elected public officers in the state of Arkansas.
According to courtroom paperwork, Bontiea Bernedette Goss, 63, and her spouse, Tommy “Tom” Ray Goss, 66, have been significant-degree executives at Chosen Spouse and children Healthcare Inc., a charity that furnished a wide range of services to folks in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Illinois, including psychological and behavioral wellbeing cure and counseling, compound abuse therapy and counseling, work guidance, help to men and women with developmental disabilities, and healthcare providers. In exchange for the bribes and kickbacks offered and paid out by the Gosses and other co-conspirators, elected condition officials in Arkansas furnished favorable legislative and official action for the charity, including, but not limited to, directing money from the state’s Standard Enhancement Fund (GIF).
Beneath the phrases of their respective plea agreements, the Gosses need to forfeit to the government up to $4.3 million as decided by the court docket at their sentencing.
Bontiea Goss pleaded responsible to conspiracy to pay back bribes and kickbacks to elected general public officers in Arkansas. Tom Goss pleaded guilty to participating in the conspiracy by embezzling funds from the charity, as well as by shelling out bribes and kickbacks to elected general public officials in Arkansas. Tom Goss also pleaded responsible to a single rely of aiding and aiding in the preparation and presentation of a untrue tax return. Bontiea Goss faces up to five decades in federal jail without parole. Tom Goss faces up to eight many years in federal jail devoid of parole. A federal district court docket judge will identify any sentence following contemplating the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Previously this calendar year, Most well-liked Household Healthcare agreed to pay out far more than $8 million in forfeiture and restitution to the federal govt and the condition of Arkansas underneath the phrases of a non-prosecution agreement, which acknowledges the prison perform of its former officers and workers.
Numerous previous executives from the charity, former users of the Arkansas condition legislature, and others have pleaded guilty in federal court as aspect of the extensive-jogging, multi-jurisdiction, federal investigation together with the following:
- Former Main Executive Officer, Marilyn Luann Nolan of Springfield, Missouri, pleaded responsible in November 2018 to her role in a conspiracy to embezzle and misapply the cash of a charitable corporation that obtained federal funds.
- Former Director of Operations and Government Vice President Robin Raveendran, of Little Rock, Arkansas, pleaded guilty in June 2019 to conspiracy to commit bribery regarding applications getting federal funds.
- Former govt and head of clinical operations Keith Fraser Noble, of Rogersville, Missouri, pleaded responsible in September 2019 to concealment of a regarded felony.
- Former personnel and head of operations and lobbying in Arkansas, Milton Russell Cranford, aka Rusty, of Rogers, Arkansas, was sentenced to 7 several years in federal jail without parole after pleading guilty to just one depend of federal plan bribery.
- Political guide Donald Andrew Jones, aka D.A. Jones, of Willingboro, New Jersey, pleaded responsible in December 2017 to his purpose in a conspiracy from April 2011 to January 2017 to steal from an business that gets federal funds.
- Former Arkansas Point out Senator Jeremy Hutchinson, of Minimal Rock, Arkansas, pleaded responsible in June 2019 to conspiracy to dedicate federal method bribery.
- Previous Arkansas Point out Agent Eddie Wayne Cooper, of Melbourne, Arkansas, pleaded guilty in February 2018 to conspiracy to embezzle extra than $4 million from Chosen Spouse and children Health care.
- Former Arkansas State Senator and Condition Agent Henry “Hank” Wilkins IV pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit federal program bribery and devising a plan and artifice to defraud and deprive the citizens of the point out of Arkansas of their appropriate to truthful providers.
Senior Litigation Counsel Marco A. Palmieri and Demo Legal professional Jacob Steiner of the Prison Division’s General public Integrity Section Supervisory Assistant U.S. Legal professional Randall Eggert and Assistant U.S. Lawyer Shannon T. Kempf for the Western District of Missouri Assistant U.S. Lawyer Stephanie Mazzanti for the Eastern District of Arkansas and Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Mohlhenrich for the Western District of Arkansas are prosecuting the independent prison conditions.
IRS Legal Investigation, FBI, and the Workplaces of the Inspectors Basic from the Departments of Justice, Labor, and the Federal Deposit Coverage Corporation (FDIC) investigated the instances.
This is a put together prosecution with the Felony Division’s Public Integrity Segment, the Western District of Missouri, the Eastern District of Arkansas, and the Western District of Arkansas.
