Third pleads guilty

Fransesia Davis, one of seven arrested on fraud charges, admits to sober home scheme

A third person who was arrested in a wide-ranging federal investigation of sober homes in South Florida pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges in a scheme that exploited patients and defrauded health insurers, records show.

Fransesia Davis, 44, of Lake Worth, admitted to using her name on ownership documents for Total Recovery Sober Living LLC, a sober home in West Palm Beach, in an attempt to hide the true owner, Kenneth Chatman, according to court records.

Authorities say Chatman also was the true owner of Reflections Treatment Center in Margate and Journey to Recovery LLC in Lake Worth.

Davis also admitted she offered free and reduced rent in order to persuade residents in recovery to attend Chatman’s treatment centers, a violation of Florida’s patient brokering laws, court records show.

She also admitted to forging signatures to make it appear as if patients were showing up to treatment and submitting drug tests even when they weren’t, records show.

Davis pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and knowingly allowing drug sales at her sober home, according to her plea agreement.

She faces up to 30 years in prison and will be required to pay restitution to victims, according to the plea agreement.

The businesses offered illegal kickbacks, coerced residents into prostitution, threatened violence against patients, and submitted urine and saliva for screening even when no medical need existed, federal investigators allege.

So far seven people, including Chatman, have been arrested on federal charges they were involved in fraud at sober homes and drug-treatment centers in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Michael Bonds, 45, of Delray Beach, pleaded guilty during a brief hearing in federal court in West Palm Beach last week where he admitted he accepted more than $240,000 in kickbacks to refer clients who were living in his sober homes for substance abuse treatment and testing, records show.

His plea came one day after Stefan Gatt, 27, a former salesman for a Boca Raton medical laboratory and a model and bodybuilder, admitted he illegally earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions through his participation in the fraud, court records show.

Also facing related charges are: Joaquin Mendez, 52, of Miramar; Donald Willems, 40, of Weston; and Chatman’s wife, Laura Chatman, 44.

Kenneth Chatman is currently in jail awaiting trial.