Adkins gets 25 years, $93M in fines
A Pikeville, Kentucky, psychologist's involvement in disgraced
former Attorney Eric Conn's $550 milion Social Security fraud scheme
and rejection to take a plea deal will cost him 25 years behind bars and
more than $93 million in fines, the U.S. Department of Justice
announced September 22, 2017.
Doctor Alfred
Bradley Adkins (PHd), 46, was sentenced by Lexington-based U.S. District Judge
Danny C. Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky after a jury found
him guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire frauds,
one count of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of making
false statements after a June 2017 trial.
The
$93 million in restitution will be paid to the Social Security
Administration and other agencies. He was also ordered to forfeit
$187,600 in fees.
While
Adkins was the final defendant to be sentenced in the case, the book on
the largest Social Security fraud case in the nation may never close
with its ringleader Conn missing after he absconded from supervision
prior to his own sentencing.
As
part of the complex scheme, former Huntington-based SSA Administrative Law Judge David Black Daugherty would seek out pending disability cases
claimants represented by Eric Conn and assign the cases to himself.
From
2004 to 2011, Conn solicited Adkins to sign medical evaluation forms
his office had previously prepared, without reviewing or even evaluating
claimants. He received $350 for each approval. Conn subsequently sent
the forms to Daugherty, who in turn approved the claimants' requests for
disability.
Their scheme
obligated SSA to pay more than $550 million in lifetime benefits to
claimants. Of at least 3,149 disability cases filed by Conn, more than
1,700 have been deemed fraudulent by government investigators.
Conn
paid Daugherty more than $609,000 for granting benefits and nearly
$200,000 to Adkins for signing the forms. For his part, Conn received
more than $7 million in attorney's fees.
Conn
fled from the area prior to his sentencing and was last spotted in July
at a gas station and a Walmart in New Mexico, according to the FBI,
citing photos from surveillance cameras.
Despite
his absence, Reeves sentenced him to 12 years in federal prison, the
maximum allowed for stealing from the government through fraudulent
disability claims and paying bribes to a Social Security judge.
Conn
was ordered to pay more than $100 million in restitution to Social
Security and Medicare, along with $5.7 million to the U.S. Department of
Justice. He also received a $50,000 fine.
Daugherty,
81, was sentenced last month to a four-year federal prison sentence and
to repay more than $93.8 million in restitution to the government
agencies
A fourth man involved,
Charlie Paul Andrus, 67, who was the chief administrative law judge in
the Huntington Social Security Office, admitted to retaliation against
an office whistleblower, was sentenced to serve six months in prison.
A
$20,000 reward is being offered to information leading to Conn's
arrest. Those with information are asked to call the FBI's Louisville,
Kentucky, office at 502-263-6000.
(By COURTNEY HESSLER,
