Former compliance director pleads guilty

TAMPA — The United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley III announced that Patricia Syling, 44, of Lutz pleaded guilty Thursday to wire fraud.

Syling was charged with using a false name (Patricia Dunne), social security number, work history and education to get a job as a director of compliance for Tampa-based HMO Citrus Health Care Inc. in October 2007.

Syling used the false information because at the time, she was under federal indictment in the Hawaii charged with eight counts of mail fraud.

Authorities say she then started submitting bogus invoices to Citrus Health Care for a fake company she created called Health Solutions Group LLC. Those and several other invoices were paid to Syling who also managed to get $395,000 wire transferred to her.

As part of her plea agreement, Syling also agreed to forfeit a home in Lutz that she allegedly bought with proceeds of the scam. She faces a maximum penalty of twenty years in federal prison.

Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated this case. Assistant United States Attorney Jay Trezevant is prosecuting it.