The civil division of the Western District of Oklahoma U.S. Attorney’s Office settled alleged violations of equity skimming against the owners of Heartland Health Care Center of Bethany. The equity skimming allegations stemmed from our December 2004 audit report outlining the misuse of funds. As a result of the combined efforts of the U.S. Attorney’s office; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), Offices of Audit and Investigation; and HUD’s Office of General Counsel, the owners paid $1.75 million to settle the allegations. Our objective was to assist the U.S. Attorney’s office in pursuing the owners and managers for their alleged violations of HUD requirements.

We recommended that HUD’s Office of General Counsel, Office Program Enforcement allow HUD OIG to post the $1,750,000 settlement to HUD’s Audit Resolution and Corrective Actions Tracking System.