Federal Inmate Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Defraud the Bureau of Prisons

Portland, Maine:  A former Waterville resident pleaded guilty today in federal court in Portland to conspiring to make false statements to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and to commit mail fraud, U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced.

According to court records, Frank Curtis, 41, caused the creation of false substance abuse treatment records in an effort to secure admission to the Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) within the BOP. Inmates who successfully complete the RDAP can qualify for a period of early release of up to 12 months.

While detained at the BOP, Curtis sent a letter to a person in Maine with directions for the creation of false records. The other person created the records, which were subsequently transmitted to a BOP facility in South Carolina. The fraudulent records were designed to secure Curtis’s admission to the RDAP at the BOP facility in Estill, South Carolina. Law enforcement discovered the scheme prior to Curtis’s admission to the program.

Curtis faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; and the Healthcare Crimes Unit of the Maine Attorney General’s Office investigated the case.