Former dental clinic owner sentenced in federal court

A former dental clinic owner from Marshfield was sentenced in federal court yesterday for failing to pay payroll taxes and for collecting unauthorized unemployment benefits.

Lorin Van Drie, 61, was sentenced to two years and eight months in federal prison without parole by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool, according to a news release from the office of Tim Garrison, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri. Van Drie also will have to pay restitution in an amount that has not yet been determined.

Lorin Van Drie and his wife Pamela Van Drie, 60, were convicted last year of running fraud schemes of more than $1 million through their dental companies, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

The Van Dries owned All About Smiles LLC, which shut down between 2014 and 2015 in Springfield, Bolivar and Mountain Grove. PL Family Management Co. LLC, another company they owned, managed staff for the clinics.

The Van Dries failed to pay almost $195,000 in payroll taxes from Jan. 31, 2013, to Jan. 31, 2015, according to the release. The couple also diverted money from their businesses for personal expenses, including purchasing a boat, recreational vehicle, utility trailers and family vacations.

Lorin Van Drie also was found guilty of collecting nearly $27,000 in unemployment benefits he was not entitled to receive from October 2010 to June 2012, according to the release.

The larger of the fraud conspiracies involved two schemes to defraud Medicaid to the tune of $885,748, according to past SBJ reporting. In both schemes, Pamela Van Drie and Dr. James Dye, a dentist at the clinics, billed Medicaid for services and products that should not have been covered.

Only Pamela Van Drie was charged with health care fraud, according to the release.

In October 2019, she was ordered to spend four years and nine months in federal prison without parole and to pay $1.1 million in restitution, according to past SBJ reporting.