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A former officer at a medical equipment company was sentenced Thursday to five years in federal prison for conspiring to defraud government health programs.
U.S. District Judge David Nuffer agreed to the sentence recommendation reached when Jacob J. Kilgore, 37, Fruit Heights, pleaded guilty to three charges of conspiracy.
Kilgore, the former vice president of sales and co-owner of Orbit Medical, admitted he had instructed sales personnel to make changes in paperwork that allowed the company to illegally bill Medicare for power wheelchairs the company sold.
Kilgore delivered a payment of $1 million to the court on Thursday as part of his agreement to repay $4 million, with the rest due by the end of the year.
His attorney, Eric Benson, called the payments "an extraordinary amount of restitution."
"He wanted to make it right," Benson said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Hirata said Kilgore had set the tone of the office by instituting a high sales quota and demanding that it be met.
"Ethics were never really part of the discussion," Hirata said.
Kilgore is to start serving his prison term on June 9.
Kilgore's case was shaken by the revelation that the government had gathered up private emails between Kilgore and his attorneys as part of a search warrant for an email account. Nuffer, however, declined to dismiss the case because of the seizure.
Three former Orbit sales representatives, who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy, are scheduled to be sentenced next week.