Lawton Woman to Serve 20 Months in Prison and Pay Nearly $840,000 for Embezzlement and Filing a False Tax Return

OKLAHOMA CITY—SANDRA JOHNSON, of Snyder, Oklahoma, was sentenced by United States District Judge Timothy D. DeGiusti to serve 20 months in prison for embezzling from a health care benefit program and signing a false personal income tax return, announced Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

From May of 2006 until the spring of 2009, Ms. Johnson worked as the office manager for a pediatrician in Lawton. Her duties included depositing checks from insurance companies that were intended to pay for medical services. At her plea hearing, Johnson admitted she cashed many of these insurance checks during 2007 and 2008 at the drive-through at Liberty National Bank in Lawton and used the cash for personal purposes. Ms. Johnson also admitted that she failed to report the cash from these diverted insurance checks as income on her 2008 personal federal income tax return.

Johnson was charged on March 21, 2011, and pled guilty on May 2, 2011.

At the sentencing hearing today, Judge DeGiusti ordered that Johnson pay restitution in the amount of $839,559.48, which includes $616,229.48 to the pediatrician, $25,000 to an insurance company, and $198,330.00 to the IRS. In addition, Johnson was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and perform 104 hours of community service following her release from prison.

These charges are the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Criminal Investigations Division of the Internal Revenue Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott E. Williams and Chris M. Stephens.

Reference is made to court filings for further information.