Former Meridian psychiatrist gets 30-month sentence

By By Suzanne Monk / managing editor
Dec. 18, 2002
The former owner of The Children's Clinic in North Meridian has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to money-laundering in a scheme to defraud Medicaid.
Dr. Walter Ocampo Anderson was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Jackson.
Anderson will also pay a $6,000 fine and serve 36 months of supervised probation after his release from prison. He faced a maximum prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine of as much as $250,000.
Two indictments
This marks the second set of penalties associated with Anderson's business operations.
His troubles began in 1998 when Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore alleged that he had falsely billed Medicaid for almost $3.75 million between September 1997 and October 1998.
Anderson was indicted for six counts of Medicaid fraud in the state-level investigation, but escaped jail time when he agreed to pay almost $3 million in civil fines and restitution. That deal was struck in September 2001 in Hinds County Circuit Court.
In December 2001, Anderson was indicted for similar federal charges in U.S. District Court in Jackson. He pleaded guilty to one count of money-laundering in September 2002; Tuesday's sentencing was for this offense.
The doctor's son
Walter P. Anderson Jr. was also indicted by a federal grand jury and pleaded guilty to knowing about his father's crime and helping to conceal it. He faced a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine at Tuesday's sentencing hearing.
The younger Anderson was sentenced to three years of supervised probation, including six months of electronically monitored house arrest, and a fine of $1,000.