Say Anything Blog

Federal Jury Convicts Nat’l Century Exec
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS,AP
Posted: 2008-03-26 16:11:20

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A federal jury on Wednesday convicted the founder of a failed health care company of trying to bribe a witness in an upcoming $1.9 billion fraud trial.

The jury took one day to deliver its decision against Lance Poulsen, former chief executive officer of National Century Financial Enterprises, described as the nation’s largest health care financing firm before its 2002 bankruptcy.

Poulsen was accused of offering a former company executive $500,000 to give misleading testimony during Poulsen’s fraud trial scheduled for August.

The executive, Sherry Gibson, told jurors that Karl Demmler, a long time friend to her and Poulsen, told her that Poulsen “wanted to make me whole.”

Before his downfall last month, Lance Poulsen, former CEO of National Century Financial Enterprises, was flying high. He ran a lucrative health care finance firm. He hosted charity fundraisers at his waterside villa in Port Charlotte, Fla. He hobnobbed with Republican politicians, including Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and he sailed often to the Bahamas on his $2 million yacht, The Enterprise.

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