Pennsylvania Operating Officer Charged Along With Her Husband With Mail Fraud, Embezzlement from Healthcare Benefit Program for Alleged False Reimbursement Expenses

Given that hospital employees are paid essentially out of government healthcare and insurance funds, cases involving hospital officers and key employees are often prosecuted in a higher profile and federal manner than other types of businesses. In addition, government employees - especially those in law enforcement - can also be charged more harshly due to their position of authority and special skills. 

A recent Indictment shows how this played out for one couple where the wife worked as an executive at a hospital and the husband worked as a detective with the local district attorney's office. 

On April 19, 2019, Stephanie J. Roskovski and her husband, Scott A. Roskovski, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh on charges of mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, embezzlement from a healthcare benefit program, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering and false statement in a loan application. An Indictment is an accusation and is not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Indictment alleges that the Roskovskis, during the years 2011 through December 2017, perpetrated a fraud totaling more than $1.3 million on Butler Healthcare Providers, d/b/a Butler Memorial Hospital, where Stephanie Roskovski was employed and, for much of that time, served as the hospital’s Chief Operating Officer. 

During the time, Scott Roskovski was employed as a detective with the Butler County District Attorney’s Office where he conducted investigations involving fraud and other financial crimes. Counts One through 23 of the Indictment allege that the defendants conspired to and did defraud Butler Healthcare Providers by submitting requests to Butler Hospital for alleged business-related expenses that were used, or intended to be used, for personal expenditures. 

California Man Who Refinanced Hotel Property Convicted Of Wire Fraud and Misstatements to a Bank in Federal Jury Trial

In the legal community, many of us expected white collar prosecutions for bank financing and mortgage fraud, including cases against lenders to be on the rise. There have not been as many cases as expected. The cases still seem to be against individuals who gave false information to get a loan. While some call these "liar's loans" - most frequently they are not prosecuted unless the borrower was not able to make the loan payments. A recent case involving hotel refinancing and construction loans show what kind of bank misstatement and loan fraud cases go criminal. In the cases we have worked on, the banks put together a large package of material to make it easy for the prosecutors to work up the case.

On November 9, 2016, after a 12 day trial, a federal jury convicted Sanjiv Kakkar of wire fraud and making misstatements to a bank. The government presented evidence at trial that Mr. Kakkar presented false information to a bank in connection with refinancing a hotel property he owned in Boulder Creek, Calif. There were three basic categories of misstatements or fraud: (1) falsifying income information and tax returns where income was overstated; (2) failure to provide updated financial and tax records; and (3) submitting false information to an escrow company to get reimbursement for construction costs.