Press Release
Former Omaha Woman Sentenced for Theft from a Program Receiving Federal Funds
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Nebraska
United States Attorney Susan Lehr announced that Carolynne R. Parker, also known as Carolynne R. Noffsinger, age 51, formerly of Omaha, Nebraska, was sentenced September 23, 2024, in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska for theft from a program receiving federal funds. Parker currently resides in Maineville, Ohio. Senior United States District Judge John M. Gerrard sentenced Parker to 21 months’ imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. After Parker’s release from prison, she will begin a 3-year term of supervised release.
In imposing the sentence, Senior Judge Gerrard commented that in 24 years as a Judge, he had “never had anyone take less responsibility” for their actions than Parker.
In December 2017, a local family practice medical clinic, Fallbrook Family Health Center, hired Carolynne Parker as a consultant. Parker had reached out to the medical community advertising her consulting business – Acute Practice Solutions (APS).
As a consultant with the medical clinic, Parker assisted with a government program called CPC+, which provided medical practices with financial resources to improve quality of care and reduce the number of unnecessary services for patients. Parker’s responsibilities included reaching out and reminding patients to schedule preventative care appointments, as well as documenting and then reporting to the government that care so that the clinic would be reimbursed.
Parker’s consultant contract ended in March 2018. However, Parker expressed how much she enjoyed working at the clinic and, in July of 2018, was hired as the clinic’s chief operating officer (COO) to continue to expand the clinic’s value-based care practice, as well as handle general office management duties. The job duties included handling staffing issues, paying the bills, billing insurance, managing employee benefits, payroll, and general accounting.
As the COO, Parker had significant authority over the business of the clinic. For example, she exclusively did their payroll and banking.
In August of 2019, IRS agents showed up at the clinic and told the doctors they were behind on employment tax payments. Parker told the doctors she would fix the issue, telling them she had forgotten to send in a piece of paper. Concerned that the IRS generally did not stop by to pick up paperwork, staff members at the clinic became concerned about Parker’s activities. That same month, at a monthly staff meeting, Parker told the clinic they had $300,000 more in additional expenses then in the previous year and she could not explain why. Concerned about the state of the clinic’s finances under Parker, the Fallbrook’s owners asked for an explanation. Parker was unable to provide an answer and was terminated from her employment.
After Parker was terminated, several accountants were consulted to help run the business side of the clinic. Their review indicated that the clinic’s finances had been horribly mismanaged by Parker. Further investigation uncovered that Parker had repeatedly changed her salary over the course of her employment, at times inflating it by as much as 45%. Parker also directly deposited money from the clinic into her personal account without permission on multiple occasions. These transactions ranged from $500-$2,800. Finally, Parker continued to write checks to her consulting company, even though the contract had ended in March of 2018. The first fraudulent check was written by the defendant the day after the previous office manager left.
Investigators found a total of $27,800 in unauthorized direct deposits from the clinic to Parker, $16,608.38 in overpayment of wages, after Parker set her salary for payroll purposes higher than agreed upon and $64,960 in unauthorized checks written by Parker to her consulting firm for work that she never did. In sum, the evidence showed that the defendant stole $109,368.38 from the clinic. A review of Parker’s personal accounts showed most of the stolen funds were spent on travel or retail expenses such as clothes or coffee to benefit herself.
In addition to directly stealing from Fallbrook, Parker neglected to fulfill many of her job duties. At the time of her termination, she had run up around $50,000 in fines and penalties for the clinic payable to the IRS due to her non-payment of various taxes. She also left many other bills unpaid, leading several venders to terminate contracts with the clinic and attempt to send them to collection. Parker also did not bill insurance correctly and it is estimated that over a million dollars was withheld from Fallbrook for medical work done because of her actions.
Parker entered a plea of no-contest to the charges. Evidence was presented during the course of her sentencing hearing. In reviewing Parker’s version of the events, Senior Judge Gerrard observed that Parker was “incapable of telling the truth.”
At the time of her sentencing, Parker was working with a health care agency in Ohio, working with substance abuse patients.
This case was investigated by agents and investigators with the Lincoln Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, both of whom would remind local businesses to carefully divide office management duties and to rely on a series of checks and balances.
Contact
Lecia Wright, Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney (402) 661-3700
Updated October 7, 2024
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