On her way to prison, Ex-Merced CEO convicted of fraud to sell local properties

The former CEO of a folded string of Central Valley medical clinics who earlier this month was sentenced to prison for defrauding Medi-Cal is being forced to sell her properties to pay back state and federal governments.

Sandra Haar, the 57-year-old founder and former chief executive of Horisons Unlimited, will sell 13 of her properties, including some of the shuttered clinics and several residential properties, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

“The purpose of public insurance programs like Medi-Cal is to provide essential services to those who need them, not to enrich bad actors who submit false and fraudulent claims,” U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott said in the release.

Haar pleaded guilty last year to fraud and was sentenced on Nov. 4 to five years in prison and a $6 million fine, according to federal authorities.

Prosecutors said Haar “orchestrated” a scam to bill Medi-Cal and Medicare for false and fraudulent claims between Jan. 1, 2014, and March 2017. She also reportedly received illegal kickbacks from an account executive at a Southern California lab where she referred patient lab testing.