WASHINGTON – Dr. Lucien A. Moolenaar II, DDS, former acting commissioner of the Virgin Islands Department of Health, was sentenced to 15 months in prison after having been found guilty on charges of stealing government funds, grand larceny and making false statements, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Anthony J. Jenkins of the District of the Virgin Islands announced today.
The sentence, which also included two years probation, three years of supervised release following Moolenaar’s release from prison and a $30,883 fine, was imposed by the Honorable Juan R. Sanchez, District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Dr. Moolenaar already has paid $102,497 in restitution.
Previously, on Aug. 26, 2004, a jury in St. Thomas found Dr. Moolenaar guilty of conversion of government funds in violation of federal law, grand larceny and making a false statement in violation of territorial law. The three charges stemmed from Dr. Moolenaar’s conversion of 63 individual monthly government payments of $1,626, totaling $102,497, and then lying to government officials investigating the matter.
The superseding indictment alleged that, in January 1995, Dr. Moolenaar found two old government payroll checks totaling $1,626 that had not been negotiated. After submitting the stale-dated checks to the Department of Finance for re-issuance, the government added $1,626 to Dr. Moolenaar’s June 22, 1995, net payroll as a negative deduction. Thereafter, from July 1995 through September 2000, due to human or computer error, the government added $1,626 to the second payroll check Dr. Moolenaar received every month. In the end, Dr. Moolenaar received and spent for his own benefit $102,497. When interviewed by officials from the Virgin Islands Office of Inspector General and Office of the Attorney General investigating the overpayments, Dr. Moolenaar falsely stated that he had no knowledge of the monthly overpayments until after they were discontinued.
This case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Armando O. Bonilla and Nicholas A. March of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, headed by Chief William M. Welch II, in coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of the Virgin Islands. The investigation was conducted by the Virgin Islands Office of the Inspector General.
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