Registered Nurse Freda Cal Covington of Hattiesburg was sentenced Thursday by Senior U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett in Jackson for her role in a conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
On Monday, Dr. Thomas Edward Sturdavant of Cordova, Tenn., was sentenced in the same court case.
U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst, Special Agent in Charge Michelle Sutphin of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Mississippi, and Special Agent in Charge Cyndy Bruce of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Criminal Investigative Service’s Southeast Field Office announced the sentencing.
Covington, 55, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Sturdavant, 56, was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a monetary judgment of $160,000, along with restitution in the amount of $1,628,409.
Co-defendant Dr. Shahjahan Sultan was sentenced on June 16 to 48 months in prison for his involvement in the conspiracy.
Beginning around May 2014, Sultan entered into a contract with a pharmacy located in Jackson County. In the contract Sultan agreed to prescribe individuals expensive compound medications in exchange for the pharmacy agreeing to pay Sultan 35 percent of the reimbursements it received for the prescriptions Sultan authorized.
In September 2014, Sultan offered to pay Sturdavant $900,000 to perform telemedicine services and prescribe more expensive compounded medications that had no medical effectiveness. Sturdavant also signed more than 50 prescriptions for the compounded medications for individuals he did not examine.
As a nurse, Covington helped increase the conspiracy by identifying individuals in places like Jones County who had insurance that covered the expensive compounded medications. She conducted simple physical examinations of patients at places like gas stations and public playgrounds and falsified patient assessments for patients she knew did not need the expensive compounded medications.
Sturdavant pleaded guilty before Judge Starrett on Nov. 21, 2019, and Covington pleaded guilty on Oct. 15, 2019.
Fallon Page, another nurse, pleaded guilty on November 21, 2019, to mail fraud for her involvement with having the unnecessary compounded medications shipped to patients by the pharmacy. She will be sentenced by Judge Starrett on July 7.
The case was investigated by the FBI and DCIS. Assistant Chief Dustin M. Davis and Trial Attorney Sara E. Porter of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathlyn R. Van Buskirk of the Southern District of Mississippi prosecuted the case.