Skip to main content

MORE NEWS IN LEGISLATIVE KICKBACK SCANDAL

It appears that Preferred Family Healthcare ("PFH") has decided to distance itself from Rusty Cranford as his replacement has been announced.

RUSTY CRANFORD

Cranford was the individual that established a shell company, AmeriWorks, that received $400,000 from the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District ("NWEDD") at the direction of former state Representative Micah Neal and outgoing state Senator Jon Wood.  According to Neal's plea deal, both Neal and Wood received kickbacks from Cranford for their help in his obtaining the funds.

You can check out our previous posts about the scandal here and here.

Cranfords replacement is Charlie Green, director of the Behavioral Health Services Division with the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

CHARLIE GREEN


Green said he will become chief executive of Preferred Family Healthcare Arkansas on January 30th.

Green's resignation from the Department of Human Services takes effect January  27th,  according the DHS Deputy Chief of Communications, Brandi Hinkle.

BRANDI HINKLE - ONE OF DHS' TALKING HEADS


Reggie McElhannon, a spokesman for Preferred Family Healthcare, has said Decision Point had planned to pass the grant to AmeriWorks but ended up returning it instead. He has denied that Preferred Family Healthcare paid any kickbacks.

REGGIE MCELHANNON - PFH SPOKESMAN


McElhannon's statement about turning the funds over to Cranford's shell company AmeriWorks, conflicts with statements he issued last week denying any "legal connection" to AmeriWorks.

Besides at the time the funds were issued to AmeriWorks in 2013, and returned by Cranford in 2014, PFH had not merged with Decision Point. The merger took place a year later in 2015.  
This is the statement McElhannon provided to use last week:





This is the letter Cranford sent with a check for the return of the $400,000 to NWAEDD.




Did you notice that the check was drawn from the Missouri bank account of Dayspring Behavioral Health Services?  How did they get the funds?

McElhannon issued a statement on Friday that stated  Cranford is "in a voluntary inactive role with our organization."

No doubt, Cranford is probably on his way to prison with Neal, unless he cut a deal with the U.S. Attorney.

We received additional documents from the NWAEDD this week and we found some interesting information.

Crandford's funding request packet had a nice handwritten note from Senator Jon Wood that stated "AmeriWorks is pretty solid".










 






The funny thing is that AmeriWorks didn't officially exist until after Cranford made his grant application.  Cranford filed paperwork with the Arkansas Secretary of Sate the very day NWAEED cut him the checks totally $400,000.



We suspect Cranford was laughing all the way to the bank.

Documents that we obtained from NWAEDD related to funds they releaseds has some other interesting information and you can expect more posts to follow.


 



Popular posts from this blog

Little Rock pastor takes his own life after complaint of sexually explict conduct with a minor child

On April 24, 2024, Tyce Michelle Scroggins found what she has described to authorities as "inappropriate text and pictures" on her husband's cellphone. The messages were between her husband, Michael Todd Scroggins, the senior pastor at Moody Chapel AME Church in Little Rock and a minor student at LISA Academy High School. Moody Chapel AME Church   An argument ensued about the text messages and Pastor Scroggins left the home. On April 25th, Mrs. Scroggins filed a report with the Little Rock Police Department about the text messages. She also notified LISA Academy administration. On April 28th, Mrs. Scroggins filed a missing person report with the Sherwood Police Department.  Sherwood Police put out an alert on social media.   On April 30th, Little Rock Police found Pastor Scroggins dead from an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound in his vehicle parked in the back parking lot of the church. Our LRPD sources say that it appeared that Pastor Scroggins had been dead several ...

ASP Trooper texts and stalks a 14 year old that was near same age as his own daughter, while having an affair with her married sister.

Was ASP Trooper Billy Martin trying to pull all 3 sisters?   In January 2019, Callie Hinson and Joseph Ramer began dating. On June 13, 2020, Joseph proposed to Callie.  They were married on February 21, 2021. By the time of their first anniversary, their marriage was in shambles and Callie was estranged from her family all due to this man, Arkansas State Police Trooper Billy Mitchell Martin. Martin joined the ASP as a recruit in January of 2007. Records from his personnel file indicate he was from Boone County and he was posted there after graduating troop school.   Martin was promoted to Trooper First Class in July 2011 and Corporal in July 2014. In late 2019 and early 2020, Martin tried to get transferred to a Criminal Investigation position in Boone County but was unsuccessful. Around that same time, Martin filed for divorce from his wife of 10 years.   The Divorce was finalized in March 2020. Martin hit the single scene hard and had no trouble hooking up with bad...

Arkansas State Police Trooper fired

I n June 2023 a teenage female filed a compliant with the Arkansas State Police ("ASP") about Corporal Michael Valentin, an ASP Trooper stationed in Harrison, AR. In her complaint she alleged that Valentin had groomed her and had sexual activities, while on duty,  with her and another minor female. She also alleged he was stalking her.  An internal investigation was opened. Both teenage females were interviewed as was Valentin.  The girls stated that they were acquainted with Valentine because one of them was the stepdaughter of a fellow trooper and Valentin was a frequent customer at the restaurant that the fellow trooper and his wife owned, where both of the girls worked. The fellow state trooper was Jason Hutcheson. And the restaurant was Hutch's Hot Chicken. Jason Hutcheson Valentin even helped out with some construction projects at Hutcheson's restaurant. The girls stated that for about nine months,  Valentin had causal encounters with them at different locat...