Reporting Highlights
- A Prosecutor’s Calling: Tim Robinson said God told him to start a drug treatment program in hard-hit Kentucky, which grew to the largest in the state.
- The FBI Investigates: Former staff and investigators allege the drug treatment center falsified invoices to bill Medicaid for millions.
- The State Acts: After years of warnings about excessive billing the state instituted reforms, but damage had been done.
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
Renault Shirley remembers the first time he was asked to falsify billing reports for Kentucky’s largest drug rehab center.
He had just returned from a church service in 2023 where the company’s founder and owner, a charismatic Christian from Eastern Kentucky, preached about the value of getting sober to hundreds of clients and staff at Addiction Recovery Care.
Shirley, 58,…
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.