An investigation into Missouri-based nonprofit charity Preferred Family Healthcare has resulted in the forfeiture of over $8 million to the federal government and the state of Arkansas.

Preferred Family Healthcare was the nation's largest Medicaid-funded charity providing services to the public including counseling, treatment for mental health and substance abuse, connections to resources for disabled individuals, employment assistance, and medical services to residents of Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Illinois. Despite their benevolent mission, officials detail that a handful of executives within the company worked in tandem with some legislators to embezzle funds and execute politically motivated bribes.

The years-long investigation into the operations of Preferred Family Healthcare uncovered a widespread medical fraud and bribery scandal that resulted in the conviction of several executives and politicians, including five former Arkansas state legislators.

As a result of the bribery and embezzlement charges, the nonprofit has agreed to pay the state of Arkansas and the federal government over $8 million in forfeiture fees. The forfeiture agreement comes as part of a non-prosecution agreement which requires the nonprofit to acknowledge the criminal behavior of its former officers and employees. Over $6.9 million will be owed to the federal government while more than $1.1 million will go to the state of Arkansas as a form of restitution for the misuse of funding.

According to the indictment, the nonprofit acknowledged that former employees participated in attempts to embezzle funds from the charity as well as bribing state officials and lawmakers. Because of the bribery and embezzlement, the nonprofit agreed that it stood to benefit from the illegal activity from a financial standpoint.

According to the federal government, executives of the nonprofit were linked to illegal activity including federal embezzlement and bribery after the 2017 conviction of Donald Andrew Jones, 62, of Willingboro, New Jersey. Jones pled guilty to charges of conspiring to steal money from Preferred Family Healthcare. According to federal prosecutors, Jones, a Philadelphia political consultant, lobbied on behalf of Preferred Family Healthcare and created a system in which the nonprofit contributed to political campaigns, a practice that violates nonprofit operational standards.

As a result of the investigation, a number of officials and lawmakers subsequently pled guilty to similar charges. Executives of the nonprofit who were also charged include the former CEO, Marilyn Luann Nolan; the former director of operations and executive vice president, Robin Raveendran; and the former executive and head of clinical operations, Keith Fraser Noble. Both the former CEO and CFO were indicted by a grand jury in 2019 but have pleaded not guilty to their charges. They are awaiting trial which is set to begin on October 3rd.

Following the investigation, the nonprofit was allowed to clean house and instate new employees to run the organization. As a result of the investigation and the forfeiture ruling, the nonprofit shared a statement through spokesperson Naomi Scott. "This has been a very challenging period for PFH, but there have been some benefits from the process," Scott's statement reads. "As the government acknowledges in the non-prosecution agreement, PFH replaced the former executives with a leadership team that values compliance, accountability and transparency and instituted a robust compliance program designed to deter and detect fraud and illegal actions."