A federal jury has convicted an Arnold chiropractor and two of the practice’s employees of conspiring to commit disability fraud, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office reported.
Vivian Carbone-Hobbs, 60, of Fenton; Clarissa Pogue, 39, of De Soto; and Christina Barrera, 63, of St. Louis were convicted Feb. 8, following a seven-day jury trial, court records show.
Carbone-Hobbs, co-owner of Power-Med Inc. in Arnold with her husband Thomas G. Hobbs, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud the Social Security Administration, 10 counts of health care fraud and two counts of theft of money from the U.S, according to court documents.
Pogue was convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud the Social Security Administration and one count of theft of money from the U.S, court records said.
Barrera was convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud the Social Security Administration, court papers show.
They are scheduled to be sentenced May 4. The health care fraud and the theft charges each are punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a possible fine of up to $250,000, and the conspiracy charges are punishable by up to five years in prison and a possible fine of up to $250,000. All three also could be ordered to repay money stolen in the scheme, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.
The three were among 10 people indicted by a federal grand jury on Sept. 17, 2020. Others indicted in the scheme include Thomas Hobbs, former AB InBev union representative James Ralston and patients Elizabeth Guetersloh, Glenda Johnson, Sheila Huffman, Shannon Nenninger and Gary Walesky, the report said.
Thomas Hobbs pleaded guilty on Jan. 19 to a conspiracy charge, admitting to committing health care fraud and Social Security fraud and making false statements and stealing government funds. Hobbs is scheduled to be sentenced on April 19, court records show.
Ralston, Johnson, Huffman and Walesky also have pleaded guilty in the case. Ralston and Huffman are scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 27, and Walesky is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 28. Johnson is scheduled to be sentenced March 2, according to court documents.
Nenninger pleaded guilty in October 2022, and in January 2022, she was sentenced to a year and one day in prison and ordered to repay more than $466,000, court records said.
Guetersloh’s case is still pending. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and theft of government funds, according to court records.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Berry told jurors on Feb. 7 that in exchange for thousands of dollars in upfront fees, the conspirators coached patients on how to conceal their abilities so they would seem unable to work and perform many of the basic functions of life, like lifting, sitting, standing and walking. Patients also had to pay hundreds of dollars for annual appointments to keep qualifying for disability payments.
Berry also said one woman “just wanted time away from work” but was told, “You need to go out on disability.” An undercover investigator who was not injured but said, “I’m just tired of working,” was told, “You’re going out; you’re going to be permanently disabled.”
Carbone-Hobbs was also billing insurance companies for services that were not provided, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Thomas Hobbs admitted that starting in 2011, he helped patients fraudulently receive more than $3.5 million in disability benefit payments through the Social Security Administration’s Disability Trust Fund and through private disability benefit insurance providers. Hobbs charged patients between $2,000 and $8,600 to prepare disability forms, according to his guilty plea agreement.
Also, despite lacking a medical license, Hobbs purchased and dispensed prescription medications, administered injections and dispensed medications intravenously to patients between 2011 and 2019. He admitted in his plea agreement that he knew he was not permitted to administer injections because the Missouri Board of Chiropractic Examiners placed him on probation for five years for fraudulently billing insurance companies for unlawfully administering injections.
Hobbs also used a fictitious medical license number to bolster patients’ disability claims so his medical determinations would be given greater weight than those from medical experts who evaluated claims on behalf of the Social Security Administration and private disability benefit insurers. He also submitted false and fraudulent medical reports to give the appearance that he had a long history with the patients, according to the plea.
Berry is handling the cases along with assistant U.S. attorneys Dorothy McMurtry, Diane Klocke and Gwendolyn Carroll.
The Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General and the FBI investigated the case.
Anyone who suspects fraud involving the Disability Insurance Benefit Program is asked to contact the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General Hotline at 1-800-269-0271 or file a report through the website oig.ssa.gov/report.