Ex-psychologist found guilty of stealing millions from Medicaid
By
Posted 7:22PM on Saturday, February 23, 2002
MACON - A former psychologist with offices in metro Atlanta and Macon faces four years in prison after a jury found him guilty of stealing more than a million dollars from Medicaid. <br>
<br>
Thirty-eight-year-old Mark Sharpe was found guilty Friday in Macon. Prosecutors say he submitted one-point-six million dollars in false claims and pocketed the money. <br>
<br>
Sharpe was based in Macon but also had offices in Alpharetta, Griffin, Warner Robins, Decatur and Stockbridge. <br>
<br>
An investigation showed claims for as many as 13-hundred patients were submitted between June 1997 and June 2000 for services that were either not provided or were billed in excess of what was provided. <br>
<br>
Some of the false claims were for people who had never been patients at all. <br>
<br>
The state described Sharpe as a man who only cared about the bottom line, who drove a Corvette that was leased with money from the center's account and who lived in an eight-thousand-square-foot home described as a ``monster mansion'' in a suburb of Atlanta.