TOLEDO, Ohio — A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a Toledo couple to prison after they were convicted on charges related to a fraudulent medical scheme they ran in the 2010s where patients said they misdiagnosed Alzheimer's.
U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary sentenced Sherry-Ann Jenkins, 59, to five years and 11 months in prison and two years of supervised release. He also sentenced Oliver Jenkins, 61, to three years and five months in prison, one year of supervised release. Sherry-Ann and Oliver, of Jessup, Georgia, were also fined $15,000 each, according to court documents.
Sherry-Ann and Oliver were convicted in March of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and health care fraud.
Court documents from the U.S. Department of Justice show that Sherry-Ann, who was not licensed to practice medicine in Ohio, and Oliver, an ear, nose and throat doctor at the Toledo Clinic, started the now-closed Toledo Clinic Cognitive Center.
The couple misrepresented themselves as a medical establishment to the Toledo Clinic, documents say. They offered people who suspected they have cognitive disorders, specifically Alzheimer's or dementia, to come to their center for neurocognitive testing, diagnosis, treatment and referrals conducted by the couple.
However, they never saw patients at the center.
Sherry-Ann "ordered PET scans of patients' brains, interpreted the scans, diagnosed patients, one as young as 21 years old, with Alzheimer's disease, dementia or other impairments," court documents say. "She also recommended patients take coconut oil to improve memory, and instructed certain patients to see her every 3-6 weeks for the rest of their lives.
They billed patients of their center, as well as health care benefits programs, using Oliver's billing number.