Lady Justice
Nuclear Weapons Engineer Sentenced to Prison for 15-Year Kickback Scheme
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A Kansas man was sentenced Thursday to 29 months in prison for orchestrating a 15-year kickback scheme that corrupted the procurement process for components used in nuclear weapons manufacturing, the Justice Department announced.
Michael Clinesmith, 70, of Overland Park, was convicted in October 2025 of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services wire fraud, along with four counts of wire fraud. The charges stemmed from a scheme in which he solicited over $1.2 million in kickbacks from a contractor in exchange for steering subcontracts for work on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC).
According to court documents and trial evidence, Clinesmith was a long-tenured employee of a major engineering firm working at the KCNSC, where he was responsible for designing and procuring specialized gauges used to measure components of nuclear weapons.
Prosecutors said Clinesmith received kickbacks and bribes from Richard Mueller, 65, of St. Charles, Missouri, in exchange for steering subcontracts to Mueller’s company. Clinesmith would tell Mueller how much money he wanted to perform work under the gauge subcontracts, and Mueller’s company included those amounts in its bids. Clinesmith then approved the bids and told his employer they were fair and reasonable without disclosing the kickback arrangement.
Clinesmith also provided Mueller with insider information, including his employer’s budget for the gauge subcontracts, which Mueller’s company used to its advantage when bidding, according to court documents.
“For more than a decade, the defendant exchanged his integrity and his employer’s trust for kickbacks from a dishonest contractor,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “To satisfy his greed, he corruptly steered contracts that were essential to ensuring the integrity of the nation’s nuclear weapons.”
The scheme lasted approximately 15 years, with Clinesmith accepting over $1.2 million in kickbacks.
Mueller’s status in the case was not detailed in the announcement.
Arizona Surgical Hospital to Pay $5.6 Million to Settle Kickback, Stark Law Allegations
PHOENIX — A Phoenix-area surgical hospital and its affiliates have agreed to pay $5.6 million to resolve allegations that improper financial relationships with a referring physician group violated federal kickback and self-referral laws, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
Southwest Orthopedic and Spine Hospital LLC, doing business as OASIS Hospital; United Surgical Partners International Inc. (USPI); and Dignity/USP Phoenix Surgery Centers LLC reached the settlement to resolve alleged False Claims Act violations stemming from arrangements dating from 2011 through 2018.
According to the Justice Department, OASIS made improper financial contributions to Southwest Orthopedic and Spine Hospital Physicians Group LLC (Southwest Physicians), a physician group that referred patients to the hospital. The contributions allegedly took the form of interest payments on convertible bonds issued to the physicians’ group.
The United States alleged that these arrangements violated both the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), which prohibits providing remuneration to induce referrals of services paid for by federal health care programs, and the Physician Self-Referral Law, commonly known as the Stark Law, which restricts hospitals from billing for certain services referred by physicians with whom they have a financial relationship unless an exception applies.
Claims submitted in violation of either law can also constitute False Claims Act violations.
“The AKS and Stark Law are designed to ensure that decisions about patient care are not influenced by physicians’ personal financial interest,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “As this settlement reflects, we will hold accountable those who violate these important safeguards.”
USPI voluntarily disclosed the arrangements to the government following a 2019 internal compliance review and independent investigation, according to the Justice Department. Officials acknowledged that OASIS and USPI took significant steps warranting cooperation credit, including promptly taking remedial actions, providing a detailed written disclosure, and cooperating throughout the investigation.
“Kickback schemes undermine the medical decision-making of medical professionals… when such professional judgements should only serve the health and well-being of patients,” said Scott J. Lampert, Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “Both those who pay and those who receive kickbacks enrich themselves from such deals, but these schemes are corrosive to the integrity of our health care system and drive up the cost of health care for all of us.”
The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.