CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Brent Farris a Fugitive from Justice
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Corporate Crime Reporter 35(1), August 22, 2005
Brent Farris is a fugitive from justice.
The former health care consultant, FBI informant on health care fraud, and bankruptcy
fraud convict – is now on the lam.
Keith McGillivray, a deputy assistant U.S. Marshal in St. Louis told Corporate
Crime Reporter that an arrest warrant was issued for Farris on June 29,
2005.
McGillivray said that Farris’ picture
and details of his arrest warrant will be posted later today on the U.S.
Marshal’s web site.
In May, 2005, Farris was sentenced to 20 months in prison after pleading guilty
to one felony count of bankruptcy fraud.
He was scheduled to report to prison earlier this year, but failed to do so.
In the bankruptcy fraud case, federal officials alleged that Farris purchased
a painting by Bartholemeus Spranger, valued at over $200,000, from Vince Bierman
Auction Company, using a straw purchaser.
In January 2002, Farris sold the painting at Christie’s Auction House
in New York City through a straw seller.
Farris subsequently filed bankruptcy for the Farris Gallery, Inc. and for himself
individually.
In June 2002, Farris failed to disclose the proceeds obtained from the sale
of the painting in the assets listed in the bankruptcy proceeding.
Jim Wiegand, an artist and antiques dealer based in Redding, California, says
he has had numerous dealings with Farris and he is angry at him.
“The man has no conscience,” Wiegand told Corporate Crime Reporter.
“I know he has burned some people. He tried to burn me a number of times.
To pull people in like he does, you just can’t have any sense of feeling.
He has no regard for the people he steps on. But he is intelligent. He is clever.”
In addition to putting himself out as an art dealer, Farris was a hospital industry
consultant and cooperated recently with the FBI in an effort to reveal what
he believed to be “a massive Medicaid fraud” involving Baptist Health
Systems of Jackson, Mississippi.
A federal probe was closed without a prosecution.
Farris said it was closed due to political pressure.
Farris said that he and his wife, Lee Farris, were targets of an intimidation
campaign that included threats, a break-in at their home, and theft of key documents
relating to the criminal investigation of Baptist.
Wiegand says he would never believe anything that Farris says.
But the U.S. Attorney in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who worked with Farris on
one health care fraud investigation, wrote in October 2004 that he considered
Farris to be a “truthful, candid and cooperative witness, and considered
his information to be useful intelligence for us.”
In January 2003, C. Gerald Cotton, a vice president at Baptist Health Systems,
wrote that Farris exhibited “extraordinary ability on all projects”
that he worked on for Baptist.
And in an August 20, 2004 memo, Bob Anderson, then an assistant U.S. Attorney
in Jackson, Mississippi, detailed Farris’ extensive cooperation in the
federal government’s probe of Baptist Health Systems, including “covert
recordings of conversations with various subjects and a readiness to offer testimony
at trial, if necessary, and offering information that helped the government
pursue various leads which has assisted the United States in pursuing other
charges against these individuals and entities.”
Corporate Crime Reporter
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Washington, D.C. 20045
202.737.1680