GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — Two former staff members from the James H. Quillen VA Medical Center received sentences on Wednesday due to their involvement in a bribery plot.
Monika D. Schorer and Teresa D. Schorer, both aged 59 and residing in Jonesborough, were sentenced to eight months in prison by the U.S. District Court in Greeneville. They were also ordered to pay over $213,000 in restitution along with a $10,000 fine, as stated in a release from the U.S. attorney’s office.
The women, who are twin sisters, will also have to serve three years of supervised release after getting out of prison.
As part of a plea agreement, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.
The two sisters faced accusations of accepting cash bribes from surgical sales agents, Eric S. Smith and Landon Chester. This corruption enabled Smith and Chester to excessively bill the VA Medical Center, often for unnecessary medical supplies, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
The bribes allegedly took the form of cash-stuffed envelopes and a promised ownership interest in a Virginia limited liability company, Four Corners Medical Supply and Equipment LLC, that had become a VA vendor with the cooperation of Teresa Schorer.
“In exchange for the bribes, the Schorers consciously permitted a substantial fraud against the VA; used a VA computer to set up Four Corners in the government’s payment system; hid and concealed their arrangement by making false disclosures on their Office of Government Ethics Forms 450; alerted Smith and Chester when their VA supervisor began asking questions; and provided other assistance to Smith and Chester not generally available to VA vendors,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in the release. “Monika Schorer also issued a letter purportedly from the VA Medical Center to try to thwart the investigation.”
Smith, one of the surgical sales representatives, was sentenced last week to a year in prison and was required to pay over $120,000 in restitution prior to sentencing. He also agreed to forfeit $185,422 that was seized during the investigation.
The other sales representative, Chester, has a sentencing hearing scheduled for Aug. 5.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, the federal government will recover more than $852,000 through the plea agreements and forfeited bank accounts.
“Our nation has a solemn obligation to care for our veterans,” U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III said. “This prosecution shows that our office and our federal partners will hold those accountable who steal taxpayer money that has been allocated to fulfill this sacred duty.”
The charges were the result of an investigation by the Department of Veterans Affairs and other agencies.
