A federal judge has sentenced two former executives of collapsed health care financing company National Century Financial Enterprises (“NCFE”), to decades in prison for their roles in a $2.8 billion fraud scheme.  These NCFE executives join Bernard Madoff and the executives from Refco as some of the high level executives that have been sentenced in the past year to decades long prison terms for securities fraud and their roles in the collapse of their respective companies. 

On March 27, 2009, Judge Algenon Marbley of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio sentenced NCFE founder and former president Lance Poulsen, to 30 years in prison, and Rebecca Parrett, NCFE’s former vice chairman and owner, to 25 years in prison.  The judge ordered Paulson and Parrett to forfeit $1.7 billion and pay restitution of $2.3 billion.  According to various news reports, Parrett, who was convicted in March 2008 of securities fraud and various other counts, remains at large and is believed to have fled the country.

In October 2008, a federal jury convicted Poulsen of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering,  The charges stemmed from a scheme to deceive investors about the financial health of NCFE that cost investors $2.8 billion.  According to news reports, at trial, witnesses testified that Poulsen engaged in a scheme from 1995 until the collapse of the company to deceive investors and rating agencies about the financial health of NCFE and how investors’ money would be used.   Evidence at trial showed that NCFE misused investors’ money and made unsecured loans to health care providers, including those owned in whole or in part by Poulsen and other owners.