SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Missouri company will pay more than $1 million to the federal government under the terms of a non-prosecution agreement announced Thursday.
Pro1 IAQ, Inc., a corporation with operations in Springfield, Missouri, and Boulder, Colorado, designs and sells indoor thermostats nationwide. Based on the non-prosecution agreement signed Thursday, representatives of Pro1 admitted that former executive officers engaged in a conspiracy to embezzle funds from Preferred Family Healthcare, Inc., a Springfield-based nonprofit corporation, from 2008 to November 2017.
Investigators say Pro1 benefited from acts of alleged criminal misconduct by the executives, who were also executives of the charity and channeled funds from Preferred Family Healthcare to financially enrich the firm. Through the agreement, Pro1 must forfeit $1,057,617 to the federal government, which is the amount Pro1 gained from the conspiracy.
“Company owners and executives abused their leadership positions in an unrelated charity to illegally enrich themselves and their for-profit company,” said U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore. “More than $1 million from the health care charity, primarily funded by Medicaid reimbursements, was siphoned to Pro1 through a series of illicit payments over several years. Pro1 has accepted responsibility for the criminal conduct of its former executives and cooperated with the federal investigation. Those embezzled funds will be recouped by the government under the terms of this non-prosecution agreement.”
Pro1, as a part of this investigation, has discontinued the leadership roles of executives accused in the investigation.