Former COO of Lincoln clinic sentenced for stealing $109,000

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — The former chief operating officer of a Lincoln clinic was sentenced Tuesday for embezzling more than $100,000.

Carolynne Parker, 51, will spend one year and nine months in prison for theft from a program receiving federal funds.

U.S. District Judge John Gerrard also sentenced her to three years of post-prison supervised release.

He told Parker that he had “never had anyone take less responsibility” for their actions, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In December 2017, Parker — also known as Carolynne Noffsinger — began working as a consultant for Fallbrook Family Health Center.

A few months later, she became the COO and was entrusted with the clinic’s payroll and banking.

But authorities said red flags were soon raised.

For instance, in August 2019, Parker told staff that the clinic’s expenses increased by $300,000 from the previous year and that she didn’t know why.

The owners of Fallbrook Family Health became concerned and fired Parker.

Accountants reviewed the business’s books and found that Parker had stolen $109,368, authorities said.

She wrote $64,960 in checks to her consulting firm for work that was never done, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Authorities said Parker also made $27,800 in unauthorized direct deposits in her account and overpaid herself by $16,608.

Investigators found that she spent most of the money on travel and retail expenses like clothes and coffee.

And Parker’s illegal activities were just part of the financial damage she inflicted, authorities said.

The accountants discovered that the clinic was racking up big bills because of Parker’s mismanagement.

By the time she was fired, the clinic owed $50,000 to the IRS for taxes that Parker had failed to pay, the U.S. Attorney’s Offices said.

Many vendors also didn’t get paid, which led them to cancel contracts and send the debts to collection agencies.

Finally, authorities said the clinic lost out on more than $1 million because Parker didn’t bill insurance companies correctly.