ATLANTA (AP) — A federal choose on Friday sentenced former Georgia Insurance coverage Commissioner John Oxendine to serve three-and-a-half years in jail after Oxendine pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit well being care fraud, plus three years supervised launch after his sentence is served.
U.S. District Choose Steve Jones had one query for the 62-year-old Republican, who was elected 4 instances to the workplace earlier than mounting a failed run for governor:
“Why?”
As Jones famous at a listening to in Atlanta, Oxendine solely personally gained $40,000 from the scheme, though Jones ordered him to pay a $25,000 high quality and to share in $760,000 in restitution with Dr. Jeffrey Gallups, who pleaded responsible to well being care fraud earlier than he may even be indicted.
Oxendine answered that he’s “an excessive amount of of a pleaser” and mentioned he was making an attempt to make his shopper Gallups blissful.
That meant that Oxendine stood up earlier than medical doctors who labored for Gallups at a September 2015 assembly at a Ritz-Carlton resort in Atlanta and urged them to order pointless medical assessments on sufferers and invoice insurers, Oxendine mentioned. It additionally meant Oxendine devised a plan to gather $260,000 in kickbacks from medical testing firm Subsequent Well being via his consulting agency and funnel a lot of the cash to Gallups, prosecutors mentioned. Oxendine paid a $150,000 charitable contribution and $70,000 in lawyer’s charges on Gallups′ behalf, prosecutors mentioned.
Oxendine famous that his father, who was legally blind, served as a Gwinnett County choose. However Oxendine mentioned he had betrayed his personal duties as a lawyer.
“I selected to be blind, nevertheless it was my very own doing,” Oxendine advised the choose. “I simply sat there; I shut my eyes. I used to be blind to my actions and the implications, how different folks would undergo.”
Protection lawyer Drew Findling asked Jones to sentence Oxendine to no more than two-and-a-half years, in comparison with the three years and eight months prosecutors sought. Findling argued Oxendine ought to serve no extra time that Gallups, who was sentenced to a few years in 2021. Gallups is now asking for his imprisonment to be lowered as a result of he made secret recordings as proof in opposition to Oxendine.
About 60 folks submitted letters looking for mercy for Oxendine, together with members of the family, legal professionals, former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr and insurance coverage commissioners from different states.
“I do know John regrets the alternatives he made,” Ivy Oxendine, his spouse, advised Jones via tears. “They have been his decisions that introduced him right here at the moment. He has expressed regret to me and his kids.”
However prosecutors mentioned Oxendine misused his place as an lawyer and his political “sway” from his 4 phrases as insurance coverage commissioner to commit fraud.
“He ought to have stopped the scheme as an alternative of designing it,” mentioned Assistant U.S. Lawyer Christopher Huber. “He ought to have reported the kickbacks as an alternative of gathering them.”
Huber famous that the scheme harm not solely insurers, however sufferers, together with one who obtained an $18,000 invoice.
Prosecutors have mentioned Oxendine advised Gallups to falsely inform a compliance officer at Gallups’ firm that the funds from Oxendine have been loans. Oxendine advised Gallups to repeat the lie when questioned by federal brokers, prosecutors mentioned. And so they mentioned Oxendine falsely mentioned he didn’t get cash from Subsequent Well being when interviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Jones mentioned Oxendine discarded his political pledge to advocate for the “little man.”
“On this state of affairs, you weren’t serving to the little man,” the choose mentioned. “You have been hurting the little man.”
Jones did present some mercy, dropping prosecutors’ requested $700,000 high quality to $25,000. And after Huber advised Jones that Gallups has paid $197 towards the $760,000 in shared restitution, Jones pledged Gallups would face scrutiny on his funds. Oxendine made an preliminary $100,000 fee towards the sum on Friday.
Gallups individually owes $5.4 million after a whistleblower filed a lawsuit saying Gallups defrauded the federal authorities via the Subsequent Well being scheme and a kickback scheme with a separate medical system firm.
Oxendine ran for governor in 2010 however misplaced the Republican main. The Georgia Ethics Fee started investigating marketing campaign finance violations in 2009, alleging Oxendine illegally used marketing campaign funds to purchase a home, lease luxurious automobiles and be a part of a non-public membership.
Oxendine settled that case with the fee in 2022, agreeing at hand over the remaining $128,000 in his marketing campaign fund whereas admitting no wrongdoing.
He was additionally accused of accepting a $120,000 bundled contribution, 10 instances the authorized restrict, from two Georgia insurance coverage corporations when he was working for governor. A choose dominated state officers waited too long to pursue Oxendine on these prices.
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