ALEXANDRIA, La. - United States Attorney David C. Joseph announced that William Britt Harvey, 45, of Lecompte, Louisiana, was sentenced on June 3, 2020, by Senior U.S. District Judge Donald E. Walter to serve two years in federal prison and three years of supervised release following his prison term for stealing over $100,000 from a medical services company. Judge Walter also ordered Harvey to pay $114,738.77 in restitution. Harvey pled guilty on Jan. 22, 2020, to one count of wire fraud.
William Harvey was employed by LA Imaging (“LAI"), a medical services company based in Alexandria that preformed mobile imaging services throughout the state of Louisiana. Harvey was employed by LAI to maintain and repair x-ray equipment used by LAI in its medical imaging business. In order to perform his duties, which included purchasing equipment and supplies to maintain LAI’s imaging equipment, Harvey had access to LAI’s credit card and bank account information. Between December 2012 and October 2014, Harvey embezzled company funds from LAI through a scheme in which he illicitly transferred money to himself using numerous PayPal accounts, including accounts under the fictitious names of “Global Imaging" and “CFA." In order to support his scheme, Harvey presented fake invoices to LAI from Global Imaging and CFA.
While working at LAI, between September 2013 and October 2015, Harvey also defrauded LAI by opening a rival imaging company called Southern Elite Imaging. Through Southern Elite, Harvey contracted with Cenla Occupational Medicine Services and leased older x-ray equipment owned by LAI to Cenla, without LAI’s consent. The x-rays taken with that equipment were then sent to a radiologist for interpretation. Harvey billed Cenla for the radiologist “read fees" and also collected lease fees from Cenla for LAI’s imaging equipment. Harvey used false invoices and caused LAI to pay the radiologists’ interpretation fees, while keeping the “read fees" and lease equipment fees paid by Cenla for his own personal use.
The United States Secret Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert C. Abendroth prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
