Former DHHR menace preparedness director indicted for approving hundreds of thousands in COVID checks with out verification

A former official throughout the West Virginia Division of Well being and Human Assets (DHHR) is dealing with federal expenses after investigators say he lied to federal brokers and earlier than a federal grand jury about signing off on hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in COVID-19 testing provides that weren’t correctly accounted for.

In accordance with a 16-page federal indictment, Timothy J. Priddy, who held varied supervisory positions with the DHHR Bureau for Public Well being Heart for Menace Preparedness (CTP) in the course of the pandemic, was promoted to deputy director of the CTP in March 2021 and in the end was named director in January 2022.

Priddy was tasked with verifying and certifying vendor invoices earlier than funds may very well be launched for fee.

In or round June 2021, federal and state authorities started an investigation to find out whether or not sure distributors had offered the COVID-19 companies for which they invoiced the state. Courtroom paperwork say a part of that investigation surrounded invoices submitted by an unnamed firm totaling $44,775,308 – the price of round 518,419 COVID-19 check kits.

Nonetheless, investigators realized that solely round 48,661 check outcomes from that firm had been reported between October 2020 and March 2022. In accordance with the paperwork, distributors contracted to carry out COVID-19 testing had been required to report check outcomes for correct, up-to-date info concerning the variety of lively COVID infections.

Regardless of the massive discrepancy between checks carried out and checks invoiced – a distinction of round 469,758 checks – the indictment says Priddy had personally licensed at the very least 13 of the invoices in query between November 2020 and February 2022, which totaled roughly $34,174,797.

Courtroom paperwork say the issue is Priddy licensed these invoices with out first verifying that the invoiced items and companies had been, in reality, offered.

It’s additional alleged that Priddy additionally created receiving experiences for 9 of the invoices on which he falsely acknowledged “all deliveries have been confirmed with the receiving amenities,” or “[an official] from the Workplace of Emergency Medical Companies confirms supplies had been delivered to jobsites.”

The primary two counts of the four-count indictment allege Priddy made false statements to a particular agent with the FBI and a United States Postal inspector that he licensed invoices associated to COVID–19 testing for state EMS companies, hospice companies, youth residential companies, “regular state” amenities and a back-to-school testing program “solely after he or considered one of his employees had verified the invoices.”

Federal authorities allege Priddy knew his statements had been false “as a result of he had undertaken no effort to confirm these invoices,” the indictment says.

The third and fourth counts of the indictment allege Priddy made false statements to a federal grand jury investigating whether or not the unnamed firm had dedicated wire fraud, cash laundering and theft from a federal program. The road of questioning to Priddy concerned how his division verified EMS companies and the back-to-school program acquired their checks.

He informed the grand jury employees on the CTP would name a sampling of about 12 EMS companies to make certain checks and objects had been being despatched and acquired. He additionally testified that he confirmed the checks despatched to varsities with an official with West Virginia colleges.

In the course of the investigation, Priddy’s declarations throughout grand jury testimony had been allegedly discovered to be false. The indictment states he knew the statements had been false when he made them as a result of neither he nor any of his employees sampled EMS companies to confirm the receipt of testing kits and by no means sought affirmation the checks had been acquired by the back-to-school program.

As of Oct. 20, Priddy’s identify has been eliminated as director on the West Virginia CTP web site – Donnie Haynes is listed as interim director.

The Dominion Publish reached out to DHHR Workplace of Communications for touch upon the allegations towards Priddy. Of their response, it’s indicated that the unnamed firm the indictment stated was being investigated is Maverick Scientific.

“The West Virginia Division of Well being and Human Assets (DHHR) has cooperated totally with federal investigators over the previous a number of months and can proceed to take action. DHHR’s contract with Maverick for diagnostic testing companies resulted in October 2022.

“Tim Priddy is suspended from DHHR. Donnie Haynes is the interim director of the Heart for Menace Preparedness. DHHR takes extraordinarily critically its accountability as a steward of taxpayer {dollars} and is dedicated to upholding the very best requirements of integrity and accountability.”