Carli Adele Hempel, the former director of bariatric services at Forest Park Medical Center, has agreed to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to misapply property of a health care benefit program.
Federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Texas filed the official document Wednesday announcing the plea agreement and its terms.
As part of the seven-page agreement, prosecutors agree that they would not bring additional charges against her involving the Forest Park criminal investigation.
Prosecutors are recommending that Hempel receive no more than one-year in prison and be fined no more than $100,000.
The judge who will sentence Hempel is not bound to abide by the terms of the agreement.
Hempel was one of 21 officials – including several prominent Dallas surgeons – at the now-bankrupt Forest Park to be charged with operating an illegal kickback scheme that raked in hundreds of millions of dollars. The defendants, prosecutors alleged, received about $40 million in kickbacks for steering their patients to the hospital. The payoffs were typically disguised, prosecutors contend, as “marketing money” or consultant fees.
Ten of the 21 cut plea deals and agreed to cooperate with the government.
Nine of the defendants, including Hempel, went to trial in February. Seven were found guilty and await sentencing. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict involving the charge against Hempel. Dr. Nick Nicholson was acquitted.