FDLE announced on Thursday the arrest of Natalie Ann Krasnow, the former Chief Financial Officer of H.C. Healthcare Inc., of Gainesville, Florida which operated Trinity Community Hospital in Jasper, Florida. Krasnow has been charged with various felony charges including racketeering, aggravated white collar crime, and operating a scheme to defraud.
Krasnow, 35, is currently being held on a $250,000 bond pending an initial appearance before a judge in McHenry County, Illinois, where she was arrested.
Krasnow’s arrest yesterday by law enforcement officers of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office, is a continuation of the joint investigation between the Florida Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, FDLE, and the State Attorney’s Office for the Third Judicial Circuit into activities at the now closed Trinity Community Hospital and its affiliated clinics in Hamilton, Suwannee, and Columbia counties.
Natalie A. Krasnow is the eighth person employed by or associated with HC Healthcare, Inc. who has been arrested since the inception of the investigation.
In July, investigators arrested owner Robert A. Krasnow, 36, of Gainesville; Dr. Yong Am Park, 66, of Lake City; Robert T. Krasnow, 58, of Gainesville, the father of Robert A. Krasnow; hospital administrator Christina L. Ortega, 42, of Lake City; and licensed practical nurse Ashley Lane Butler, 37, of Live Oak.
In addition, the former Medical Director of Trinity Hospital, Dr. Wayne A. Rahming, and former Trinity staff physician, Jorge Prieto, were arrested by Medicaid Fraud investigators in a separate scheme involving the unlicensed practice of medicine at a clinic in High Springs. Additional arrests may follow.
The investigation of Trinity Community Hospital established that over $660,000 in state grant funds dedicated to hospital improvements were received by the corporation, but little if any of these funds were used to make such improvements.
CFO Natalie Krasnow was the corporation’s grants liaison officer with the Florida Department of Health and was instrumental in applying for and accounting for the proper disposition of these funds. The investigation disclosed that the bulk of these funds were used either to support the activities of the criminal enterprise or diverted to the personal use of Krasnow or her brother, hospital owner Robert A. Krasnow. Monies gained through these fraudulent activities were laundered through various bank accounts controlled by Robert A. Krasnow, and some of the diverted hospital grants funds were traced to a defunct car dealership managed by Natalie A. Krasnow.
Krasnow is charged with one count of criminal racketeering, one count of scheme to defraud and one count of aggravated white collar crime, all first-degree felonies. If convicted on all charges, Krasnow faces a maximum of 90 years imprisonment and $30,000 in fines.
SEEMS LIKE THIS HOSPITAL CFO COULD HAVE — — USED A FEW POINTERS FROM THE CURRENT REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP….