Smith County Couple Sentenced in Federal Court
Posted/updated on: May 5, 2017 at 3:46 pm
TYLER – A Smith County couple is sentenced in Tyler federal court for health care fraud violations. Gerard Dengler, 61, and Suzanne Dengler, 52, pleaded guilty back in January. Judge Thad Heartfield sentenced Gerard to to 24 months in Federal prison. Suzanne received a sentence of five years of probation. Both were also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $161,695, which represented the loss to Medicare. Last December, the Denglers and Elite Lab agreed to pay the United States $3.75 million to settle a false claims act lawsuit in connection with the case. This stems from a lawsuit filed by former Elite Lab employee.
The couple owned and operated Elite Lab Services, a clinical diagnostic laboratory based in Tyler. the couple had been accused of inflating mileage claims submitted to Medicare. From April through October 2014, the company then sought reimbursement from Medicare for mileage that included the falsely inflated amounts.
