A former toy store owner from Minnesota has reportedly been handed a sentence of 15 months in prison for defrauding the U.S. Department of Defense’s healthcare program out of millions of dollars.
According to a recent report from KNSI Radio, 40-year-old Adelle Starin – who operated a store that sold baby products and toys – made false claims for reimbursement to the healthcare program TRICARE to the tune of $9 million.
Authorities say that TRICARE initially paid out the claims, but when it started rejecting them, she created a fictitious shell company – Sunshine Medical LLC – in which she falsely claimed she represented two lenders who needed financing to purchase supplies from her firm.
However, according to a previous press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), her firm “had no business operations or revenue.” Therefore, to pull off the scheme, she had to create fake invoices for Sunshine Medical LLC and send them to the lenders she claimed the firm represented.
All in all, prosecutors say she fraudulently raked in $9 million from her fabrications to TRICARE.
She pleaded guilty to wire fraud in December 2024 and was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay $2.35 million in restitution in addition to her time behind bars.
Starin’s attorney, Brett Kelly, has issued a statement on the matter.
“Roughly a year ago, Ms. Starin decided to turn herself into the federal government and self-report her criminal conduct. That is an exceptionally rare occurrence, which both the court and the government appropriately recognized. The parties agreed that the two victims, Liquid Capital and Slope Tech, lost a total of $2.3 million from the fraud. Ms. Starin paid those lenders over $7 million during the same period. She did not enrich herself in this scheme.
The money went back into the operating costs of the business. Ms. Starin also agreed to pay roughly $48,000 in restitution to TRICARE for durable medical equipment, independently prescribed by doctors, that was later deemed ineligible for reimbursement.”
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