Two middle Tennessee men have been sentenced for their roles in a conspiracy to defraud two hospital management companies. Tyrone Floyd Berry, 46, of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison and ordered to forfeit $247,734.92. Aaron James Hill, 43, of Fairview, Tennessee, was previously sentenced in July to 33 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $577,500. According to court documents, Hill worked as a human resource coordinator at Community Health Services in Franklin, where he was responsible for selecting recruiting vendors on behalf of his company. Around August 2015, Hill and Berry agreed to create false invoices for “Berry Recruiting,” a company purportedly owned by Berry. Berry scoured various social media websites and pages such as LinkedIn and Craig’s List to obtain the names of unsuspecting job seekers. Hill submitted invoices to Community Health Services for payment, representing that these persons were recruited Berry Recruiting. In fact, these individuals were unaffiliated with Hill, Berry, Berry Recruiting, or Community Health Services.
Berry Recruiting received $257,469.84 for 38 false invoices submitted to Community Health Services between August 2015 and April 2016. Hill and Berry carried out a similar scheme at Quorum Health Corporation in Brentwood, where Hill began working in May 2016 as an employee relations manager. Hill and Berry subsequently submitted false invoices to Quorum Health on behalf of Berry Recruiting. Berry Recruiting received $567,765 for 33 false invoices, all of which falsely represented Berry Recruiting obtained and relocated new employees. The investigation determined Hill and Berry simply recycled the names of employees previously recruited by other firms and hired by Quorum Health.
