The Justice Department announced that it reached a settlement worth over $16 million with Floyd Calhoun Dent, III arising from a healthcare fraud judgment against Dent as well as fraudulent transfer claims against Dent, certain members of his family, his family trust and several corporations owned or controlled by Dent that received millions in assets that were the proceeds of the fraud. Dent, along with two other individuals, was found liable by a South Carolina jury in 2018 for submitting false claims to Medicare and TRICARE, in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act. A judgment was subsequently entered against Dent and the other two individual defendants jointly for $114 million. The judgment was affirmed by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021.
Prior to the judgment, but after Dent’s company, BlueWave Healthcare Consultants Inc., which he owned jointly with co-defendant Brad Johnson, had been served with a Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General subpoena (IG subpoena), Dent transferred tens of millions of dollars in assets, which were the proceeds of his healthcare fraud scheme, to his spouse, his parents, his in-laws, a family trust and 10 corporations owned and/or operated by Dent. These transfers started within a few months of service of the IG subpoena and continued through 2015. As part of the settlement, Dent, his spouse and his family, the family trust and the 10 Dent corporations are surrendering nearly all of their assets, which are valued at over $33.6 million, including 22 parcels of real property worth approximately $19 million, $5 million in gold and silver coins, $8 million in cash and $1 million in vehicles, boats, farm equipment and other personal property. The settlement requires the assets be surrendered to the Justice Department and the Liquidating Trustee for now bankrupt Health Diagnostic Laboratories Inc. (HDL), a blood testing laboratory that participated in the healthcare fraud with Dent and his co-defendants.
