Tammy Young, 49, of Knoxville, Tennessee, was sentenced Wednesday, Oct. 3 in U.S. District Court to 15 months in federal prison for her role in defrauding the government of more than $2 million, announced U.S. Attorney Don Cochran for the Middle District of Tennessee. 

Young is the final defendant to be sentenced in the conspiracy, which resulted in charges against eight other individuals. U.S. District Judge Aleta A. Trauger also ordered $550,001 in forfeiture and restitution.

According to court documents, All About Giving was formed by LaShane Hayes, of La Vergne, and incorporated as a nonprofit agency in September 2014. 

The entity was registered as a sponsor agency in the United States Department of Agriculture’s Child and Adult Care Feeding Program, which is administered by the Tennessee Department of Human Services. The CACFP was created to reimburse child care providers for meals served to low-income children and other qualifying individuals.

Between January 2015 and July 2016, Tammy Young used her residence as the Knoxville office for All About Giving and enrolled other individuals as providers for the purpose of submitting fraudulent reimbursement claims to TDHS, representing that the funds had been used to provide meals for eligible CACFP participants. 

Young pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and admitted that she registered individuals as providers, knowing that they were not providing child care and overstated the number of providers who actually furnished meals to children and inflated the number of children who actually received meals. 

During the course of this conspiracy, Young personally received checks totaling more than $54,000.

The other eight defendants charged in this case previously pleaded guilty and have been sentenced by the court.

The case was investigated by the USDA Office of Inspector General and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Henry Leventis and Sara Beth Myers.