Former TDOC official, health care director accused of $123M contract fraud face federal charges

Federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against the former chief financial officer of the Tennessee Department of Corrections and a high-ranking health care executive who prosecutors say worked together to rig the bidding of a $123 million contract.

Wesley Olan Landers and Jeffrey Scott Wells have been charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and commit perjury, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee announced Tuesday. Landers served as deputy commissioner and chief financial officer of TDOC from 2012 to March 2020 before joining Centurion, a prison health care company where Wells was a vice president.

If convicted, each faces up to five years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

The alleged misconduct first came to light during legal proceedings brought by a competing healthcare company that lost a contract with Centurion.

In 2019, TDOC began accepting bids from health care companies for a new contract to provide behavioral health services to inmates. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, between September 2018 and February 2020, Landers shared confidential information about TDOC’s bidding process with Wells using his personal email account and the WhatsApp messaging program.

In March 2020, Landers left TDOC and took a position at Centurion created specifically for him, where prosecutors say he reported to Wells. In July 2020, TDOC announced it had selected Centurion over other candidates. The company received a $123 million contract.

Corizon, now known as YesCare, sued Centurion in October 2020, alleging that “Centurion was awarded a contract with terms that only Centurion could meet.” As the case progressed, Centurion executives learned that Landers had given Wells confidential information, according to prosecutors. Both were fired in February 2021.

Shortly afterward, the attorney’s office said, the two began deleting each other’s messages to hide their scheme. Court records say that the day Corizon served him with a subpoena, Landers created an account on Quora, a question-and-answer site, to visit pages asking questions like “How do I permanently delete WhatsApp chats?” and “If the police confiscate my phone, can they still recover all my WhatsApp messages even if I delete the app?”

Here are the sites visited by the Landers:

quote
quora.com/How-are-police-able-to-revoke-messages-on-WhatsApp-even-though-they-are-end-to-end-encrypted-Is-WhatsApp-deceiving-people-by-claiming-that-their-messages-are-encrypted?top_answ=240742156
quora.com/According-to-WhatsApp-chats-between-two-persons-are-end-to-end-encrypted-How-does-NCBCBI-or-police-access-them-Even-WhatsApp-can’t-read-how-do-these-agencies-obtain-these-chats?top_ans=240243301
quora.com/unanswered/If-I-delete-WhatsApp-will-my-messages-be-permanently-deleted-or-can-they-be-downloaded-from-the-server-if-the-company-was-legally-obliged-to-deliver-them
quora.com/How-do-I-delete-WhatsApp-chats-permanently?top_ans=85717595

The filings show that Landers and Wells lied during their testimony in the lawsuit. Landers said he had “no recollection” of sending Wells any bid-related documents, and Wells said he had no communication with Landers about the state’s request for bids during the bid process.

Court documents show that in early 2022, Corizon and Centurion reached a settlement in the case.

A 2022 Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office news release identifies Landers as the county manager of food service provider Aramark. His voicemail also identifies him as “Wes Landers of Aramark.” TDOC had a contract with Aramark from 2016 through at least June 30, 2024, according to the Tennessee Department of General Services website.

The United States Attorney’s Office did not name Centurion or Corizon in the indictment against Landers and Wells, but the information is consistent with and corroborated by previous reports and court documents.

TDOC declined to comment. Centurion, Aramark, Landers and Wells did not respond to requests for comment.

Evan Mealins is a justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMe AND lin.

This article originally appeared in the Nashville Tennessean: Ex-TDOC official, health care director charged in $123M contracting scheme