CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A federal judge has sentenced a Florida mother and daughter and ordered them to pay more than $870,000 for running a Medicaid fraud scheme through a Cheyenne clinic.
U.S. District Court Judge Kelly H. Rankin sentenced Tera Marie Campbell, 47, to 36 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Rankin sentenced Campbell’s daughter, Tayler Ann Krauss, 27, to two years of home confinement, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release.
The court ordered both women to pay $735,717.63 in restitution to Wyoming Medicaid. Campbell must also pay $135,890.91 to the military’s Tricare program, with Krauss sharing responsibility for up to $71,509.44 of that amount.
Campbell owned The Olive Branch LLC, a behavioral health clinic for autistic children in Cheyenne and Minot, North Dakota. Court documents state Campbell used the clinic to submit fraudulent…
PAYROLL & HR CONTROLS (PREVENTING “GHOST” SCHEMES)
Payroll fraud is often the hardest to detect because it “looks” like a normal business expense.
- Segregation of Duties (SoD): The person who adds new employees to the system must not be the same person who approves the monthly pay run.
- Mandatory Vacation Policy: Require all financial and HR staff to take 5–10 consecutive days of leave annually. Fraud often surfaces when the perpetrator isn’t there to “hide” the trail.
- Ghost Employee Audit: Perform a quarterly “Headcount Reconciliation” where managers must physically verify every name on their payroll list exists.
- Self-Pay Blocking: Ensure the payroll software has a hard-coded block preventing administrators from editing their own salary or bank details.