GAINESVILLE - A Gainesville woman has pleaded guilty to taking part into an alleged theft of almost $11 million from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Billie Nell Ogletree, 69, was one of 12 people charged in the scheme, in which a former VA supervisor was accused of using her security clearance to alter records of dead veterans with no beneficiaries in order to funnel illegal benefits to herself and others.
Ogletree entered her plea before U.S. District Court Judge Rick Story in Gainesville.
The supervisor, Sarah Prater of Atlanta, was a friend of 30 years of Ogletree, who federal prosecutors said received more than $1.5 million in VA funds. Ogletree will be sentenced May 9. She faces up to 65 years in federal prison and a fine of $1.5 million for theft of government property, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy.
Ogletree and nine others, including six of her family members and Prater, were charged in October.
Prater, 60, already had been charged in August with the theft of $6 million along with two others, former VA program clerk Ernest L. Thornton, 42, of Hiram, and Kathy Eselhorst, 52, a former VA senior claims examiner from Lilburn.
Prosecutors say Thornton and Eselhorst are cooperating in the investigation. Thornton pleaded guilty Jan. 22 to money laundering and agreed to forfeit funds he received along with purchased items such as a hovercraft, a light aircraft, a motor home, trucks and cars.
Friday
March 7th, 2025
10:10AM
