PRESS RELEASE
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of the United States Attorney
Middle District of Tennessee March 8, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jim Vines
United States Attorney

Hilliard Hester and Byron Jones,
Assistant U.S. Attorneys

Sentence Handed Down in Worker's Compensation Fraud Case

Memphis, TN - Lawrence J. Laurenzi, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, announced today that Lisa Ayotte, 41, of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, was sentenced today by U. S. District Judge J. Daniel Breen to serve 12 months and 1 day in prison, followed by 2 years of supervised release. Judge Breen also ordered Ayotte to pay restitution of $151,996.00.

Ayotte pled on December 5, 2005, to one count of mail fraud and one count of money laundering. As part of her plea agreement, Ayotte agreed to make full restitution.

According to the Information filed in open court on December 5, 2006, Ayotte was the vice-president of Risk Management and Claims for Swift Transportation Company, Inc. (Swift) who directed Swift's day to day operations involving Worker's Compensation Claims. The information states that Ayotte and two former business associates set up corporations for the purpose of conducting audits of Swift's Worker's Compensation Claims. One of these corporations, CompCare produced audits of the worker's compensation claims on spreadsheets provided by Ayotte and sent these to Swift, along with an invoice.

The information charges that Ayotte then authorized the payment of these invoices, causing a check to be mailed to CompCare by Swift. A & J, Inc., then invoiced CompCare for 85% of the original invoice and Ayotte's corporation, TSL Consulting, Inc., invoiced A & J, Inc. for 55% of the original invoiced amount, thus dispersing the fraudulently obtained funds. Upon receipt of the audits from CompCare, Ayotte would not utilize them for the benefit of Swift. In fact, the work done in the audits was a duplication of the work performed by Swift employees on a daily basis.

As a result of the scheme, Ayotte caused Swift to lose approximately $263,000.

This investigation was conducted by FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation and the Memphis Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart J. Canale represented the government.