Tyrone Berry of Lawrenceburg, Tenn., and Aaron Hill of Fairview, Tenn., were sentenced to 12 months and 33 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in the fraud. The two men previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud.
Mr. Hill worked as a human resource coordinator at Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems, where he was responsible for selecting recruiting vendors. In August 2015, Mr. Hill and Mr. Berry agreed to create false invoices for a recruiting company owned by Mr. Berry. He pulled names of job seekers from various websites, including Craigslist, and submitted invoices to CHS for payment, representing that he had recruited the individuals, according to the Justice Department.
Prosecutors said Mr. Berry’s recruiting company received $257,469 for false invoices submitted to CHS between August 2015 and April 2016.
In May 2016, Mr. Hill started working at Brentwood, Tenn.-based Quorum Health. He and Mr. Berry carried out a similar scheme at Quorum, and Mr. Berry’s recruiting company received $567,765 for false invoices submitted to Quorum, according to the Justice Department.
Mr. Hill and Mr. Berry split the more than $825,000 received from CHS and Quorum for the false invoices, according to prosecutors.
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