...former CEO of National Century Financial Enterprises was sentenced to 10 years in prison

Where is this guy?
James Happ served as executive vice president of National Century Financial Enterprises ("NCFE"), a health care financing company and the primary lender of Med Diversified.

In his three years in this role, he restructured the Servicer department to improve
operational performance and accelerated the utilization of technology to
increase operational efficiency.

The former CEO of National Century Financial Enterprises was sentenced to 10 years in prison today for witness tampering and obstruction of justice -- charges related to the fraud that brought down the company in 2002.

Lance K. Poulsen was convicted in March in the courtroom of federal Judge Algenon L. Marbley, who sentenced him.

Poulsen, 65, and his friend Karl A. Demmler, 57, were found guilty of trying to convince the government's key witness in the company fraud case to fake amnesia.

Wire taps on the phones of Demmler and Poulsen showed how they offered Sherry Gibson money if she would forget facts about National Century dealings.

Demmler was scheduled for sentencing today but his attorney was granted a continuance for a psychological evaluation. Demmler has become mentally unstable and has told jail employees that he has been drinking his urine to help with his problems, his attorney said in court filings.

National Century was a Dublin-based company that, for a fee, collected accounts receivable for health-care providers. National Century used investors' money to give cash to the providers so they could pay their bills.

When National Century collapsed in November 2002, more than 275 health-care providers went bankrupt. Investors lost nearly $2 billion in what prosecutors have billed as the nation's largest case of private-sector fraud.

Five former executives of National Century were convicted of fraud-related charges in March. Four were sentenced this week:

Donald H. Ayers, 72, to 15 years

James E. Dierker Jr., 40, to five years

Roger Faulkenberry, 47, to 10 years

Randolph H. Speer, 57, to 12 years

The fifth, Rebecca S. Parrett, disappeared after the verdict and remains at large.

Poulsen faces fraud charges as well and is scheduled for trial Oct. 1.

jandes@dispatch.com