» Furniture store owner pleads guilty in sober home scam,
WEST PALM BEACH — A once successful furniture store entrepreneur faces a possible 15-year prison sentence after pleading guilty Thursday to federal charges stemming from what prosecutors described as a scheme to use recovering drug addicts to defraud insurance companies.
John Skeffington, 52, of Delray Beach pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and obstruction of a criminal health care investigation. Since the crimes were committed when he was on probation on two charges of mail fraud in connection with a land scam, the owner of Skeffington Furniture and Mattress faces additional punishment when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra on July 6.
In a soft brogue revealing his Irish roots, Skeffington admitted he offered bribes to recovering drug addicts at sober homes in Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Royal Palm Beach. In exchange for the money, the addicts gave him urine samples that were sent to unidentified labs and hospitals for testing.
While the tests weren’t medically justified, they were lucrative, federal prosecutors said. Insurance companies paid for the expensive tests, and Skeffington and others received kickbacks from the labs and hospitals. To disguise the payments, he deposited the money in his furniture store bank accounts, FBI agents said.
As part of his plea deal, Skeffington, who once owned six furniture stores from Stuart to Boca Raton, will be forced to pay restitution. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marie Villafana said the amount is still being determined.
Like 56-year-old Boynton Beach resident Mona Montanino, who pleaded guilty to an obstruction charge Monday in connection with the scheme, Skeffington agreed to provide information to authorities about others who were involved. Babette Hayes, 58, of Lake Worth is to plead guilty today to charges stemming from her role in the scam.
Skeffington had been out of prison for five months when he began working with the sober homes here and with labs in Pennsylvania, Texas and Miami-Dade and Broward counties and hospitals in rural Florida to operate the scheme, records show.
His downfall came when federal agents began investigating sober homes operated by Kenny Chatman, who is serving a 27-year sentence after being accused of letting recovering addicts die while he perpetuated a multimillion-dollar scheme. An unidentified witness told agents Skeffington had paid for information about sober homes that would allow him to get urine from its residents.
Skeffington was convicted of mail fraud in 2012 after making $465,000 peddling lots in Arkansas to 47 buyers in Florida, the United Kingdom and Arkansas, records show. A $1.4 million bank loan he got to obtain an 880acre tract didn’t allow him to subdivide the property, prosecutors said.