William J. Timmons, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Hacienda HealthCare, Inc. (Haceienda), will serve no prison time for his involvement in an elaborate while collar fraud scheme that bilked Arizona taxpayers out of millions of dollars.
Timmons was sentenced to a mere 3 years supervised probation and financial restitution of $774,000.
The case against Timmons was brought by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
Timmons and his long-time Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and co-conspirator Joseph O’Malley were indicted in August 2020.
Timmons was the CEO of Hacienda from July 1989 to January 2019. From 2013 until June 30, 2018, Timmons and O’Malley intentionally misallocated funds from the Arizona Department of Economic Security’s Division of Developmental Disabilities (DES/DDD) and the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) by manipulating costs to make them appear to be allowable expenses in order to avoid repayments of state funds in favor of inflated salaries and bonuses. The DES/DDD contract was with Hacienda’s Intermediate Care Facility (ICF) only. However, Timmons used the money to pay for a large portion of costs at Hacienda’s other facilities and did not reimburse the State, as required by the contract. This resulted in millions of dollars of overpayment by the State.
South Mountain Health Supply was operated under the umbrella of Hacienda. Between July 1, 2013, and June 2018, South Mountain purchased medical supplies from third-party vendors, and then re-sold the supplies to Hacienda at a 12.5 percent markup. Timmons directed the payment of the inflated prices, including a delivery fee (even though the two entities were located at the same address), with public monies.
In June 2021, Timmons pleaded guilty to two counts of Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices, both of which are Class 2 Felonies.
As part of the agreement with the State of Arizona, Timmons agreed to pay the following in restitution: