A Sartell woman who pleaded guilty to inventing a phony supplier and creating fake invoices to secure more than $9 million in financing was sentenced Thursday to 15 months imprisonment, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.
Adelle Starin, 41, engaged in fraud through her Minnesota business, Baby’s on Broadway, which sold baby products and toys at storefronts in downtown St. Cloud and Little Falls, documents state.
“Faced with ballooning business debts arising from [Baby’s on Broadway] business activities, [Starin] sought out fraudulent methods to secure financing,” documents state.
Former U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger previously said in a statement that Starin first submitted fraudulent claims for reimbursement to Tricare, a health care program that’s part of the U.S. Department of Defense Military Health System, which “paid out many of Starin’s fraudulent claims, but when TRICARE began rejecting those claims, Starin expanded her scheme to bring other sources of revenue.”
Documents state Starin created a company called Sunshine Medical and drafted fake invoices that she sent to two lenders, Texas-based Liquid Capital Enterprises Corp. and California-based Slope Tech. Inc.
“Sunshine had no inventory, was not a [Baby’s on Broadway] supplier, and was not engaged in any legitimate business activity,” documents state. Starin received about $1.1 million from Liquid Capital Enterprises and about $8 million from Slope Tech.
Starin pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in federal court on Dec. 19. Her attorney, Brett Kelley, said Starin “decided to turn herself into the federal government and self-report her criminal conduct, [which] is an exceptionally rare occurrence.”
Kelley said Starin paid the lenders back more than $7 million and “did not enrich herself in this scheme. The money went back into the operating costs of the business.”
