A former chief financial officer of an Arkansas medical clinic has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for wire fraud after stealing more than $500,000 from her employer between November 2020 and June 2024. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas confirmed the sentencing on September 3, following Angela Hoover’s guilty plea in May to a single charge of wire fraud.
Hoover, 46, from Benton, Arkansas, was ordered to serve 24 months in prison, followed by one year of supervised release. She must also repay $540,599, the full amount taken, through restitution. The funds were diverted via wire transfers and an unauthorized bonus while she served as CFO of Arkansas Pediatric Clinic, a role she held after being promoted from practice administrator in August 2020.
Investigators found Hoover made over 300 unauthorized wire transfers from the clinic’s accounts at U.S. Bank and Simmons Bank. Of that total, $372,329 went directly to her personal bank account, while $271,041.42 was used to pay her American Express credit card. The money was siphoned by redirecting Medicaid and health insurance payments, collected through a medical billing platform, into her personal accounts instead of the clinic’s designated accounts.
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Hoover also exploited her authority by paying herself an unauthorized $5,000 bonus, beyond the two $2,500 COVID-19-related payments she was legally entitled to receive. The first unauthorized transfer was detected in June 2021, when she moved $1,288.83 from the clinic’s bank account to her personal account. The FBI later uncovered the broader scheme during an investigation.
In court filings, Hoover’s attorney, Brian Kuester, noted she had repaid $440,599, the majority of the stolen amount, before sentencing. Kuester argued in a September memorandum that Hoover acknowledged the harm caused to the clinic, its physicians, employees, and patients. He also highlighted her lack of prior criminal history, her role as a mother of four with shared custody of two minor children, and her surrender of her CPA license.
Hoover stepped down from her CFO position in June 2024, transitioning to a part-time bookkeeper role before being fired about a month later. Kuester had previously requested either probation with strict home confinement or a shorter prison term followed by supervised release and home confinement. The judge ultimately rejected those proposals, opting for the full 24-month sentence.
