Owner of Washington DOT drug screening company pleads guilty to fake lab reports

The owner of a drug screening company has been charged with and pleaded guilty to counts of mail fraud for her role in a scheme involving fraudulent drug tests companies paid her to conduct honestly, according to court documents.

From 2009 through March 2015, Christine Clark, owner of Premium Drug Screening, Shelton, Wash., provided U.S. Department of Transportation drug and alcohol testing for companies that hired the company for its service. As a third-party administrator, Premium Drug Screening conducted random testing programs for employers by collecting urine samples.

Once a urine sample is collected, third-party administrators send the sample off to a laboratory where it is analyzed. Results are then sent to Medical Review Officers who are licensed physicians. The MRO report is sent to either employers or the third-party administrator collecting the samples.

As part of the job of a third-party administrator, Clark was responsible for the payments for both the laboratories and MRO review. According to federal court documents, Clark was contracted with four laboratories.

However, of the nearly 600 urine samples collected by Clark, the four laboratories only tested 94. The remaining reports were falsified by Clark by forging results from six MROs and sending those fake results to employers via U.S. mail.

Clark contracted with at least 23 employers in western Washington.

On Nov. 21, Clark was charged with one count of mail fraud. Clark pleaded guilty about two weeks later. Sentencing is scheduled for March 12.