Nursing home owner sentenced for fraud

The former owner of several nursing homes has been sentenced to 42 months of imprisonment after being convicted of health care fraud and money laundering.  Rocky Lemon pled guilty on both charges.

In addition to the prison term the owner must serve three years of supervised release after completing his imprisonment and pay more than $4 million in restitution to Medicare and Medicaid.

From 1997 to April 2001, Lemon owned and operated more than 50 nursing homes through TLC Healthcare Inc.

Lemon admitted that he executed a scheme to defraud the Medicare Program and the Texas Medicaid Program by diverting Medicare and Medicaid money to his own personal use and benefit.

Lemon used some of that Medicare and Medicaid money to finance his purchase of nursing homes, then sold some of the nursing homes for profit and funneled a portion of the net proceeds into his personal bank and brokerage accounts.