Former Kentucky Youth Center Founder Indicted for Fraud

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The U.S. Attorney in Louisville says the founder of a therapy center has been charged in a scheme to defraud the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice and the federal government.

An indictment charging 61-year-old Clifford Frank "Jay" Wilkinson was unsealed on Thursday. It says Wilkinson and a former employee, 39-year-old Erica Beth Bowen, together falsified attendance records at the Bluegrass Training and Therapy Center by allegedly forging the signatures of youths.

A release from the U.S. Attorney's office says an investigation found 8,000 instances of falsified sign-ins from 2012 to 2015. The indictment says Wilkinson, the center's founder, and Bowen, a former employee, fraudulently obtained more than $400,000 in payments.

If convicted at trial, Wilkerson and Bowen could be sentenced up to 20 years in prison.

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/kentucky/articles/2018-02-16/former-kentucky-youth-center-founder-indicted-for-fraud