Biden grants clemency to Indiana nursing home CEO who led $19 million fraud scheme

President Joe Biden has commuted the sentence of a former Indiana health care executive who led a $19.4 million fraud scheme involving nursing homes owned by Marion County's public health system.

Former American Senior Communities CEO James Burkhart was among nearly 1,500 people whose sentences Biden commuted Thursday as part of what the White House has described as the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.

As the top executive of Indiana's largest nursing home operator, Burkhart and several co-conspirators orchestrated a massive fraud and kickback scheme involving a web of shell companies. He then spent the money on private jets, vacation homes, diamond jewelry and gold bars. Most of the stolen money came from the Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County, a public health agency that owns nursing homes and operates Eskenazi hospital.

Burkhart pleaded guilty in 2018 to conspiracy to commit fraud, conspiracy to violate the health care anti-kickback statute, and money laundering. He was sentenced to 9.5 years in federal prison.

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