Missouri Republican lawmaker resigns immediately after $900K COVID medical clinic fraud scheme conviction

A Missouri Republican condition consultant has resigned times immediately after getting convicted of 22 federal expenses, the vast majority of these offenses staying joined to a $900,000 COVID-19 fraud plan operated via healthcare clinics and a non-income at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. 

Point out Rep. Tricia Derges stepped down Friday from her seat representing Christian County (District 140) in the Missouri House of Representatives, KOLR reported. 

Her resignation came 4 times just after she was convicted on June 28 by a federal demo jury for what prosecutors described as a almost $900,000 COVID-19 fraud plan, as effectively as a individual $200,000 fraud scheme in which she created wrong statements about a fake stem cell remedy marketed through her clinics in southern Missouri, and for illegally delivering prescription prescription drugs to clients of those people clinics.

The 64-calendar year-aged from Nixa, Mo., was uncovered guilty of 10 counts of wire fraud, 10 counts of distributing medicine in excess of the internet devoid of a valid prescription, and two counts of building fake statements to a federal law enforcement agent, the Justice Department announced before previous week. 

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Rep. Tricia Derges resigned Friday following a COVID fraud plan conviction.  (Missouri Household of Reps)

"This is an elected official who stole dollars from the general public, a purported humanitarian who cheated and lied to her patients, and a professional medical experienced who illegally distributed medications," U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore mentioned in a assertion last Tuesday. "She violated her situation of rely on to selfishly enrich herself at the expenditure of some others. But a jury of her friends, in a unanimous verdict, noticed via her smokescreen of excuses and ridiculous statements, and now she will be held accountable for her legal behavior."

Even with her biography on the Missouri House of Representatives saying she is "a clinical medical doctor and entrepreneur," the DOJ pressured that Derges "is not a medical doctor but is accredited as an assistant medical professional." 

JOPLIN, MO - JULY 2:  The Covid-19 screening website at the Walmart Supercenter in Joplin, Missouri on July 2, 2020.  ((Image by Terra Fondriest for The Washington Submit by using Getty Illustrations or photos).)

She operates three for-earnings Ozark Valley Health-related Clinic spots in Springfield, Ozark, and Branson, Missouri, as properly as the non-income corporation Carry Up Anyone Nowadays, Inc., with a health-related and dental clinic in Springfield, prosecutors explained. Her official Missouri Home of Representatives biography suggests the non-revenue is a "professional medical-dental-psychological health mission clinic that provides treatment for the homeless, weak and veterans," and that Derges "teaches health-related college students board assessment courses for their USMLE licensing examinations." 

Relating to the COVID fraud plan, prosecutors explained Derges tried to receive $900,000 in CARES Act cash. She was essentially awarded $296,574 in CARES Act cash for Lift Up, even though although Lift Up did not offer any COVID-19 tests expert services to its patients and in simple fact, closed at the starting of the COVID-19 pandemic and remained shut from March to June 2020.

Derges fraudulently claimed Elevate Up furnished COVID-19 tests and sought reimbursement for "COVID-19 qualified bills" that Lift Up had incurred. To help her claim, Derges supplied invoices totaling $296,574 from Dynamic DNA for additional than 3,000 COVID-19 laboratory checks. 

Trace Robinson receives a coronavirus test at an Affinia tests internet site in St. Louis on Thursday, April 23, 2020. 

Derges submitted the Dynamic DNA invoices as Lift Up expenditures, though they have been truly for testing accomplished at Derges’s for-revenue Ozark Valley Professional medical Clinic, prosecutors claimed. 

Ozark Valley Healthcare Middle had currently received payment from its consumers of around $517,000 for these COVID-19 assessments. Ozark Valley Health care Centre charged clients, clients, or their patients’ employers approximately $167 for every sample for its COVID-19 tests providers. Derges hid from Greene County that these COVID-19 tests had now been paid out for by other payors.

Prosecutors say Derges also promoted a stem mobile treatment method that essentially used amniotic fluid that did not incorporate any stem cells. She advertised it on the internet as a probable COVID procedure. 

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Derges administered amniotic fluid, which she falsely claimed contained stem cells, to people who experienced from, between other items, tissue hurt, kidney sickness, persistent obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), Lyme disease, and urinary incontinence. In an April 11, 2020, Fb submit, Derges wrote of amniotic fluid allograft: "This awesome procedure stands to offer a potential heal for COVID-19 individuals that is harmless and purely natural."

Derges also was convicted of 10 counts of distributing Oxycodone and Adderall over the world wide web with out legitimate prescriptions.