A former AltaCare long-term care operator with a lengthy history of bilking Medicaid and Medicare has pleaded guilty to obstructing the federal government’s efforts to collect more than $9.5 million in taxes.
Douglas K. Mittleider of Adairsville, GA, the former president of Hyperion Foundation and AltaCare Management Corporation, admitted in court documents and statements before the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia that, despite having been responsible for paying income, Social Security and Medicare taxes for employees at numerous long-term care facilities throughout the US, he did not. That’s according to a US Department of Justice Tax Division statement announcing the guilty plea Thursday.
“Among other things, Mittleider directed the commingling of funds among businesses he controlled and used funds for purposes other than to pay the IRS,” the release said. “Mittleider also caused the creation of new operating companies and bank accounts to make it more difficult for the IRS to locate assets and levy accounts. In total, Mittleider’s conduct caused a tax loss to the IRS of more than $9.5 million.”
Mittleider, who is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 4, faces up to a maximum of three years in prison, plus unspecified potential monetary penalties and restitution.
His activities have been on the radar for various law enforcement and tax collection agencies since 2004, when the IRS found him personally liable for unpaid employment taxes. The press release noted that he began taking steps in November 2011 to conceal business funds and impede the IRS from collecting.
McKnight’s Long-Term Care News has reported several times on Mittleider’s run-ins with the law. In 2012, the DOJ joined a whistleblower suit against Mittleider and his companies for withholding supplies and not having the proper number of staff. At the time, the group that filed the original complaint said that Mittleider’s scheme was rampant in the more than 30 facilities his companies controlled. That case was settled in 2017, with Mittleider required to pay a $1.25 million settlement within four years.
Mittlesider had also faced charges, investigations or lawsuits in Georgia, Tennessee and Massachusetts, the last of which banned him from owning or operating a long-term care facility in that state for 10 years. A listing for AltaCare Corporation on OpenCorporates, an online database of corporation activities, indicates that a Notice of Admin. Dissolution/Revocation was filed on June 16, 2023. Contact information for Mittleider could not be located Friday.
