Fifth Defendant Sentenced In Interstate Stolen Medical Supply Scheme

BOSTON – A former employee of an Atlanta-based hospital was sentenced yesterday for conspiring to sell stolen medical supplies valued at more than $1.7 million.

Felicia Duggan, 41, of Georgia, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf to 36 months of probation, with six of those months to be served in home confinement, $1,714,350 in restitution to the hospital, and $33,887 in restitution to the IRS. In August 2013, Duggan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and two counts of subscribing false tax returns. Over a two-year period, Duggan stole numerous medical supplies and devices from an Atlanta-based hospital where she was formerly employed. Beginning in March 2008, Duggan conspired with others, including a Boston-based medical supply thief, Corey Gatlin, to sell those stolen medical supplies on the black market.

Duggan was the fifth and final defendant to be sentenced in an investigation into the lucrative black market for stolen medical supplies and devices.

Gatlin, 37, of Georgia, was sentenced in March 2012 by U.S. District Judge William G. Young to 51 months in prison, 12 months supervised release, $3,226,715 in restitution to the three victim hospitals. Gatlin pleaded guilty to a three-count Information charging him with conspiracy and two counts of subscribing false tax returns. In 2004, Gatlin began stealing medical supplies from a hospital in Boston and selling them on the black market. In 2005, he moved to Atlanta and continued to steal, and recruit other employees to steal for him, medical supplies from two victim hospitals in Atlanta. Over the course of six years, Gatlin sold a total of more than $3.2 million in medical supplies that he and others had stolen from the three Boston and Atlanta-based hospitals.

David Kelly, 54, of Florida, was sentenced in January 2014 by Judge Wolf to 12 months and 1 day in prison, 36 months of supervised release, $191,285 in restitution to the Boston-based victim hospital, and a $4,000 fine. Kelly pleaded guilty to a one-count Information charging him with sale or receipt of stolen goods. Kelly purchased stolen medical supplies from several individuals, including another defendant, Eric Jones, over a period of five years, worth a total of at least $191,285.

Eric Jones, 42, of Quincy, was sentenced in April 2011 by Judge Young to 12 months and 1 day in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and $1,130,669 in restitution to the Boston-based victim hospital. Jones pleaded guilty to a one-count Information charging him with interstate transportation of stolen property. Jones, a former Boston hospital worker who later became an operator for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), stole, over a period of four years, numerous medical supplies from a supply room at the his former employer. Jones often stole the supplies from the hospital while on a break from his job at the MBTA and while wearing his MBTA uniform. Jones stole over $1.13 million worth of medical supplies from the hospital, which he sold to various individuals, including Kelly.

Tristen Slavin, 33, of Norwood, was sentenced in February 2011 by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns to three years of probation and $238,029 in restitution to a victim hospital based in a suburb of Boston. Slavin pleaded guilty to a one-count Information charging her with interstate transportation of stolen property. Over a period of approximately three years, Slavin stole medical supplies worth at least $238,029 from her then hospital employer, and sold them on the black market.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Mark Dragonetti, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, New York Field Office; Shelly Binkowski, Acting Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; and William P. Offord, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston, made the announcement. The cases were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amanda P.M. Strachan and Jim Arnold of Ortiz’s Health Care Fraud Unit.