Richmond Woman Sentenced to More Than 11 Years for Health Care Fraud and Filing False Tax Return

RICHMOND, VA—Veronica Sharon Cunningham, 49, of Richmond, Virginia, was sentenced today to 135 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for fraudulently billing insurance companies and the Medicare and Medicaid programs for services not actually administered. She was ordered to pay $6,678,525 in restitution to Medicare, Medicaid, and various private insurance companies and $473,460 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service for filing a false tax return.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; John S. Adams, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Richmond Division; Rick Raven, Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation; Nick DiGiulio, Special Agent in Charge, United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, Office of Investigations; and Michael McGill, Special Agent in Charge, Social Security Administration-Office of Inspector General, made the announcement after sentencing by Senior United States District Judge Robert E. Payne.

Cunningham was found guilty on March 15, 2012, and convicted of 26 counts of health care fraud, eight counts of making false statements on patient health care records, and a single count of filing a false tax return. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial and sentencing, Cunningham owned and operated Community Neurological Services (CNS), a Richmond business that administered Intravenous Immune Globulin (IVIG) to patients suffering from immune deficiency disorders. Cunningham regularly and systematically billed insurance companies and the Medicare and Medicaid programs for IVIG not actually administered and made other false entries in patient records, resulting in a total loss of approximately $6.6 million. She also falsely under reported the gross income of CNS by over $1 million in her 2005 tax return, resulting in approximately $473,000.00 of unpaid taxes for that year.

This case was investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division, and Social Security Administration-Office of Inspector General. Assistant United States Attorney Michael C. Moore and Department of Justice Fraud Section Trial Attorney Maria Gonzalez Calvet prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.