Health-care providers acknowledged that they took money out of the lockboxes ....Providers are the clue as to where to follow the money!

Take a really deep look into where the money is.
Where did this begin? We never address the "ROOT" of the problem.



NATIONAL CENTURY
Prosecutors look to take executives' homes, cars
Monday, April 28, 2008 3:17 AM
By Jodi Andes

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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Complete coveragePension funds and public and private investors lost a total of $1.9 billion when National Century Financial Enterprises collapsed, the investors say.

This week, federal prosecutors begin trying to recoup some of that money by asking a judge to make five recently convicted company executives financially responsible.

Prosecutors are trying to attach a $1.7 billion IOU to each of the defendants. The amount reflects losses that were proved at trial. Assets would be collected from each until $1.7 billion is recovered.

To accomplish that, prosecutors will be going for "every last penny" the defendants have, Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Squires said in federal filings.

That means such things as Donald H. Ayers' million-dollar homes and Rebecca S. Parrett's art gallery as well as cars, televisions and jewelry.

It's difficult to gauge how much can be recouped, said Fred Alverson, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.

Prosecutors estimate that Ayers made more than $7.4 million while working at National Century; Parrett, $7.6 million; Randolph H. Speer, around $1.2 million; Roger S. Faulkenberry, about $2.3 million; and James E. Dierker Jr., more than $712,000.

If U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley agrees that the five should be held financially responsible, prosecutors will follow up with filings spelling out what the government hopes to seize, Squires said. Marbley is expected to rule in June.

Squires declined to elaborate on what the government will try to take. However, from earlier court filings, it's obvious that prosecutors have their sights on the defendants' homes, no matter whose name is on the deed.

Ayers has argued against forfeiting his Muirfield Village home because it's in his wife's name. Faulkenberry, too, lives in a home owned solely by his wife. He signed the house over to her in November 2002, the same month the company filed for bankruptcy, according to Delaware County records.

Parrett opened an art gallery in Carefree, Ariz., in 2005 and owns a personal art collection, according to news reports at the time.

If the judge agrees, the government could take her property even though Parrett disappeared in March and remains at large, Parrett's attorney, Greg Peterson, said. "He can proceed with her in absentia."

Court filings to date don't say what the executives own.

However, after the trial, Ayers withdrew $800,000 from a bank account, according to court testimony. Squires told Marbley the withdrawal showed that Ayers, like Parrett, is likely to flee. But Ayers' attorney, Brian Dickerson, said the money was to pay for past and future legal expenses.

What the government collects might be far less than $1.7 billion, Alverson conceded, but that is not a concern. "It's important to have that judgment against them in case they ever come into a large sum of money."

Any inheritance or lottery winnings, for example, could be seized, he said. Defense attorneys say their clients are broke.

Faulkenberry's and Speer's assets ran out before the February trial, and taxpayers covered the cost of their court-appointed attorneys; Parrett's Arizona home is in foreclosure, and she is practically indigent, Peterson said at the trial's end.

"It's not taken," James Ervin Jr., one of Speer's two attorneys, said of the money the government claims is owed. "And it's not in a Swiss bank account. It's not buried in a backyard.

"It's where it has always been, in lockboxes," Ervin said, referring to where National Century kept money before it was disbursed.

The company took over bills owed to health-care providers, offering them a lesser amount of cash upfront to pay their expenses. As insurance companies and government programs such as Medicaid paid the bills, National Century held the money in lockboxes.

Some was kept as company profit. Other money went to National Century investors.

Health-care providers acknowledged that they took money out of the lockboxes to stay afloat after National Century filed for bankruptcy. Defendants called it theft.

Kathy Patrick, an attorney who represents the largest group of investors in civil lawsuits against National Century, said she thinks the executives have more money than they admit, saying that Parrett has had the financial means to stay on the lam for a month.
Patrick said she anticipates that the government "will just hound people" until it gets the money.

jandes@dispatch.com