Judge Sentences Tulsa Man, Orders Restitution in Fraudulent Scheme

Saturday, March 2nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ A federal judge has sentenced a Tulsa man to four years and three months in prison and ordered him to pay $789,088 in restitution for a scheme that cost the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma Oncology Inc. nearly $1.2 million.

Mark Perkins was sentenced on Friday in a Tulsa federal courtroom. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Russell said some of Perkins' assets have been applied already to the difference between that amount and what was lost.

Perkins, 44, pleaded guilty Oct. 11 to embezzlement, mail fraud and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions.

According to court documents, Perkins, then the chief executive officer of Oklahoma Oncology, arranged to buy chemotherapy drugs from a California company, Oncology Therapeutic Network.

He admitted intercepting invoices and generating false invoices and shipping documents from October 1997 to December 1999.

The documents stated that the drugs were supplied by ASD, an entity controlled by Perkins that never actually sold or delivered drugs to Oklahoma Oncology.

Perkins admitted that Oklahoma Oncology paid ASD's invoices and that he then used that money to invest in stocks.

He said he planned to make profits from his investments and then pay the California firm, but losses in the market led to a shortfall that caused Oklahoma Oncology to end up paying $650,000 that it did not actually owe.

Perkins also reportedly oversaw the day-to-day business of mediSYS, a company that provided administrative services to IMFA, an oncology clinic operated by OU.

He admitted misappropriating more than $3 million from an IMFA account at Stillwater National Bank from Oct. 1, 1997, to Dec. 31, 1999, by placing that money in an ASD account.

After his prison term, which begins April 15, Perkins will serve three years of supervised release.