La Vergne's LaShane Hayes Faces Federal Charges

Nov 09, 2016 at 02:58 pm by bryan


United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee David Rivera told NewsRadio WGNS that on Wednesday (11/9/2016) a 43-year old La Vergne woman was charged in a criminal information case. LaShane Hayes faces charges of conspiracy and wire fraud in relation to her role as the director of All About Giving, Inc., a sponsor agency in the United States Department of Agriculture's Child and Adult Care Feeding Program.

The total amount of USDA funds provided to All About Giving between February 2015 and July 2016 by the Tennessee Department of Human Services was $2,198,647.93.

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If convicted, Hayes faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. She also faces forfeiture of the proceeds of her offenses.

That welfare program was created to reimburse child care providers for meals served to low-income children and other qualifying individuals. The program is funded by the USDA and administered in Tennessee by the Tennessee Department of Human Services. Program sponsor organizations were responsible for, among other things, enlisting child care providers into the program, communicating the total amount of reimbursement funds the providers were entitled to receive each month to the Tennessee Department of Human Services and distributing reimbursement funds to these child care providers.

The charging document alleges that Hayes, as a program sponsor, and her co-conspirators defrauded the program in a number of ways., including by overstating the number of All About Giving providers who actually furnished meals to children and by overstating the number of children who received meals from All About Giving providers in order to receive more program funds from the Tennessee Department of Human Services.

The case was investigated by the USDA Office of Inspector General and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis.

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