A former Arkansas state senator was sentenced yesterday for accepting multiple bribes in a case resembling a plot point from the popular Netflix series “Ozark.”
Jeremy Hutchinson, 48, of Little Rock, pleaded guilty on June 25, 2019, in the Eastern District of Arkansas to filing a false tax return; pleaded guilty on June 25, 2019, to an information filed in the Western District of Arkansas to conspiracy to commit federal program bribery; and pleaded guilty in the Western District of Missouri on July 8, 2019, to conspiracy to commit federal program bribery.
On Feb. 3 of this year, Hutchison was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison for his convictions in the Eastern District of Arkansas and Western District of Arkansas.
His sentence handed down this week in the Western District of Missouri will run consecutive to the previous sentence for a total of eight years in prison.
According to court documents in connection with his plea in the Western District of Missouri, Hutchinson was hired by then-chief operating officer Bontiea Goss as outside counsel for Preferred Family Healthcare Inc. (formerly known as Alternative Opportunities Inc.), a Springfield, Mo.,-based healthcare charity. In exchange for payments and legal work, Hutchinson performed official acts on behalf of Preferred Family Healthcare, including holding up agency budgets and drafting and voting on legislation.
Preferred Family Healthcare paid Hutchinson more than $350,000 in monthly retainer payments from May 2014 until 2017.
In 2022, Preferred Family Healthcare agreed to pay more than $8 million in forfeiture and restitution to the federal government and the state of Arkansas under the terms of a non-prosecution agreement, in which the company admitted to the criminal conduct of its former officers and employees.
Several former executives from the charity, former members of the Arkansas state legislature, and others have pleaded guilty in federal court as part of the long-running, multi-jurisdiction investigation, including the following:
- Former Chief Operating Officer Bontiea Goss, previously of Springfield, Mo., pleaded guilty in September 2022 to her role in a conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.
- Former Chief Financial Officer Tommy “Tom” Ray Goss, husband of Bontiea Goss, and also previously of Springfield, Mo., pleaded guilty in September 2022 to participating in the conspiracy by embezzling funds from the charity, as well as by paying bribes and kickbacks to elected public officials in Arkansas. Tom Goss also pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation and presentation of a false tax return.
- Former Chief Executive Officer Marilyn Luann Nolan of Springfield, Mo., pleaded guilty in November 2018 to her role in a conspiracy to embezzle and misapply the funds of a charitable organization that received federal funds.
- Former Director of Operations and Executive Vice President Robin Raveendran of Little Rock, Ark., pleaded guilty in June 2019 to conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.
- Former executive and head of clinical operations Keith Fraser Noble of Rogersville, Mo., pleaded guilty in September 2019 to concealment of a known felony.
- Former employee and head of operations and lobbying in Arkansas Milton Russell Cranford, aka Rusty, of Rogers, Ark., was sentenced to seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count of federal program bribery.
- Political consultant Donald Andrew Jones, aka D.A. Jones, of Willingboro, N.J., pleaded guilty in December 2017 to his role in a conspiracy to steal from an organization that receives federal funds.
- Former Arkansas State Representative Eddie Wayne Cooper of Melbourne, Ark., pleaded guilty in February 2018 to conspiracy to embezzle more than $4 million from Preferred Family Healthcare.
- Former Arkansas State Senator and State Representative Henry “Hank” Wilkins IV was sentenced in January 2023 for his role in a conspiracy to commit federal program bribery and devising a scheme and artifice to defraud and deprive the citizens of the state of Arkansas of their right to honest services.
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Chris Graham
