Criminal Investigative Updates

The United States obtained a civil judgment of nearly $1 million in connection with fraudulent veterans assistance claims made by barber school and salon owner April Tucker Beard. In October 2023, the US filed a civil complaint against these defendants pursuant to the False Claims Act alleging that Beard knowingly defrauded VA’s Post-9/11 GI Bill education assistance program by falsely certifying 1,500 hours of formal class instruction. Beard and her school charged grossly inflated tuition and fees for VA students in the amount of $22,400 as compared to $2,400 for non-VA students. Beard did not regularly conduct classes or otherwise provide instruction and most of the veteran students did not receive certificates of completion nor test with the Mississippi State Board of Barber Examiners to fulfill licensing requirements. As a result of Beard’s false certifications, she fraudulently received $235,734 in tuition payments.

Theresa A. Kelly, of Herrin, Illinois, was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment after she admitted to submitting false medical documents, obstructing justice, and committing Medicare fraud. Kelly, a licensed clinical psychologist, was employed by the Marion VA Medical Center in Illinois. Between November 2016 and August 2020, she submitted fraudulent medical documentation in the name of real and fake medical providers as part of the approval process for reasonable accommodations and medical leave, including FMLA leave. In addition, between May 2016 and January 2018, Kelly engaged in a scheme to defraud Medicare and obtain payment for psychiatric services she did not provide. While employed full time at the VA, Kelly owned a company, TS Onsite Mental Health, through which she claimed to provide psychotherapy sessions to patients at Shawnee Christian Nursing Center in Herrin. Kelly billed Medicare for more than 400 claims, worth more than $54,000, for services she did not provide. In addition to her term of imprisonment, she was ordered to repay $35,795.94 in restitution. The case was investigated by VA OIG and HHS OIG.

Darren A. Smith of Hazel Crest, Illinois, the owner of a medical distribution company, was convicted on eight wire fraud counts. The trial revealed that Smith schemed with a procurement clerk in VHA’s Prosthetics Service in Chicago to have the VA order costly medical equipment from Smith’s company in exchange for concealed kickbacks to the clerk. The orders placed by the clerk involved unnecessary and more expensive rentals of medical equipment from Smith’s company instead of purchasing the equipment outright, as VA physicians had instructed. From 2017 to 2020, the VA spent more than $2.7 million at Smith’s company and fraudulently overpaid it by more than $1.3 million. In exchange, the clerk pocketed approximately $220,000 in kickbacks. The VA OIG investigated this case.

Anthony J. Salomone of Odessa, Florida, pleaded guilty to theft of government property and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. According to court documents, Salomone’s mother received VA benefits as the surviving spouse of a deceased veteran. Following her death in October 2017, Salomone did not report it to the VA, which continued to deposit monthly benefits for her until March 2022. Salomone took those benefits, to which he was not entitled, and spent them on his own personal and business expenses. In total, he stole approximately $63,000 in funds. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 11, 2024.

Rupert G. McLendon, III, of Tampa, Florida, was sentenced to 90 days in federal prison and ordered to pay forfeiture, followed by two years of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. McLendon was a paid caretaker for a family member through the VA’s Veteran Directed Home and Community Based Services Program. The family member was hospitalized in August 2018 until his death in December 2018. McLendon failed to notify the VA of the veteran’s hospitalization and death, continued to input caregiver hours, and made false statements regarding the veteran’s whereabouts. As a result, he fraudulently received approximately $37,400. The VA OIG investigated this case.