Dive Brief:
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A former HR director of the Illinois Department of Public Health has been sentenced to 25 months in prison for participating in a bribery and kickback scheme.
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In addition to the prison sentence, Roxanne Jackson also was ordered to repay the roughly $1.1 million meant for Illinois Department of Public Health programs.
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Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Bass said he recommended a prison sentence of half of typical guidelines because Jackson's cooperation with the government — which included wearing a recording device and sharing text messages and recorded conversations with other state officials — resulted in several other pleas and convictions.
Dive Insight:
It's extremely rare to see an HR professional going to prison for work-related crimes -- especially crimes of this scale. On the other hand, at least Ms. Jackson did the right thing and cooperated with authorities in tracking down other potential wrongdoers in the massive fraud scheme.
Jackson apologlized at the sentencing hearing and said she planned to "spend the rest of my life encouraging people to pay and follow the law."
