Zachary A. Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, announced that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana collected $12,233,320 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2022. 

Much of it involved American Senior Communities.

Additionally, the Southern District of Indiana worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $216,807 in cases pursued jointly by these offices. Of this amount, $60,816 was collected in criminal actions and $155,991 was collected in civil actions.   

“The efforts and leadership of our Civil Division and Asset Recovery Unit have resulted in the recovery of millions of dollars that will assist victims of fraud and other crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Myers. “We are proud to have coordinated with so many local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to protect victims and hold criminals accountable.”

The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with the Department’s litigating divisions, are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the United States and criminal debts owed to federal crime victims. The law requires defendants to pay restitution to victims of certain federal crimes who have suffered a physical injury or financial loss. While restitution is paid to the victim, criminal fines and felony assessments are paid to the department’s Crime Victims Fund, which distributes the funds collected to federal and state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.

Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana, working with partner agencies and components, collected $1,964,136 in asset forfeiture actions in Fiscal Year 2021. Forfeited assets deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.

For example, in August, the Southern District of Indiana recovered Nearly $6 million as part of the government’s settlement with American Senior Communities, L.L.C. (ASC). In 2017, a former employee of a hospice services company doing business with ASC filed a “whistleblower” lawsuit under the civil False Claims Act. The complaint alleged that ASC had engaged in conduct to defraud the Medicare program. Specifically, the complaint alleged that ASC was charging Medicare directly for various therapy services, which were being provided to beneficiaries who had been placed on hospice, when those services should have been covered by the beneficiaries’ Medicare hospice coverage. Based on the investigation, the estimated loss to the Medicare program was $2,795,522.33 and ASC agreed to pay $5,591,044.66 to the United States. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Shelese Woods and Justin Olson handled the case for the United States

American Senior Communities has locations across the state including Franklin, Greensburg, Connersville, Columbus.