Accused Woman Says She Blew Whistle on Other Fraud Scheme

Friday, July 1, 2016 | 0

The former co-owner of a Texas medical business told The Dallas Morning News she blew the whistle on Tshombe Anderson, a lawyer accused of $30 million in federal workers' compensation fraud, while he was working for her brother-in-law.

The catch: Christine Craighead is herself accused of federal workers' compensation fraud — along with her brother-in-law, who was recently sentenced to 14 years in prison — and Anderson's attorney says Craighead reported him only because he refused to participate in their kickback scheme.

The Craigheads fired Anderson and his wife, Brenda, from their medical business after discovering the Andersons had billed the government for unnecessary medical supplies, Craighead claimed.

"I am the person who actually performed the audit that discovered Tshombe Anderson's fraudulent activities," Craighead said in an email to the newspaper.

Anderson's attorney, Douglas C. Greene, told the News that the Craigheads fired Anderson and reported him to authorities because "he wasn't giving them the kickback money they wanted."

Garry Craighead, 49, received a 14-year federal sentence earlier this month for pocketing $17 million in kickbacks in exchange for referring workers' compensation patients to other health care providers. 

Together, Garry and Christine Craighead are accused of inflating medical bills, billing for services not provided and charging the federal workers' compensation program for unnecessary services, scamming the federal government out of $40 million from January 2009 to December 2013, the News reported.

A chiropractor who worked for the Austin office of their medical business, Union Treatment Centers, reported them in 2013, filing a false claims lawsuit in San Antonio federal court as a whistleblower.

The federal government joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff in June 2015, an action it takes in less than a quarter of false claims lawsuits, a Justice Department document said.

The federal case against the Craigheads, United States Of America, et al v. Union Treatment Centers, L.L.C. et al, 5:13-cv-00004-XR (W.D. Tex.), is pending.

View the Andersons' indictment here.