Contractor pleads guilty in medical contracts scheme
ROANOKE – A contractor from Salem pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to taking part in a scheme to steer contracts to him for repair, maintenance and renovation work at healthcare and nursing home facilities.
Gary L. Johns pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, which is located in Roanoke.
Johns signed a plea agreement to two felony counts. He was charged with conspiring with other people to steer contracts for work at Medical Facilities of America facilities throughout Virginia from March to at least December 2006, according to the United States Department of Justice.
Federal court papers say a MFA employee in charge of overseeing bidding for work at the facilities steered contracts to Johns’ Salem Commercial Design, and that employee got kickbacks in return. According to the Department of Justice, Johns paid more than $124,000 to the employee and received MFA contracts that totaled more than $1 million.
For more details, read this week’s Dec. 15 issue of the Salem Times-Register.
