YOUNGSTOWN — Kortney Gherardi, 30, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and three years of probation Tuesday for her role in the $24 million Braking Point Recovery Center health-care scheme.

She will report to prison at a later, unspecified date.

Gherardi is one of several people convicted in the case who worked under Braking Point owner Ryan Sheridan, who was sentenced in January to 7 1/2 years in federal prison.

Gherardi was program director for Braking Point’s drug treatment facility on state Route 46 in Austintown, making her “involved in every part of the day-to-day operations” of the facility, Mark Bennett, assistant U.S. attorney said.

Bennett explained that Ryan Sheridan’s ex-wife, Jennifer Sheridan, handled the billing, “trying to bang out as many billings as possible.” That made her the second-most responsible person for the criminal enterprise behind Ryan Sheridan, he said.

Gherardi was the manager who interacted with nurses and licensed counselors, who told Gherardi that Braking Point shouldn’t be billing Medicaid for certain types of services the way it did, Bennett said.

For Braking Point to bill at the highest level of reimbursement, its nurses and doctors would have had to provide a 15-minute consultation to each patient, but staff told Gherardi it didn’t take that long, Bennett said.

Instead of listening to that, Gherardi told employees to increase billing numbers, he said.

Gherardi worked in a restaurant before coming to Braking Point and initially had a “lack of training,” but after attending training sessions, she realized Braking Point wasn’t following the rules. “In her own notes,” Gherardi indicated things Braking Point was not doing correctly, Bennett said.

“Ms. Gherardi is helping and pushing (employees) to make the records that Ms. Sheridan is using” to fraudulently bill Medicaid, Bennett said. The revenue Braking Point received for services was “so far off the radar” compared to other treatment facilities, he added.

Gherardi was making around $70,000 per year, and Ryan Sheridan gave her a $60,000 car to use, Bennett said. The federal government will soon take possession of the 2015 Chevrolet Suburban she has been using, Bennett said.

Gherardi’s attorney, Jacqueline Johnson with the Office of the Federal Public Defender, said Gherardi was not “living lavishly.” She said Braking Point started out with the “best of intentions,” but the company “lost its way because of a lack of leadership.”

Gherardi has “no prior criminal record,” and is valued by her family and current employer, Johnson said.

Gherardi told Judge Benita Y. Pearson Ryan that Sheridan “had me thinking the staff wasn’t billing correctly,” but she knows now she was “naive” and there were “warning signs going on in the background” she should have heeded.

The judge said she believes Gherardi was “groomed in some ways” by Ryan Sheridan, but “when you knew you were doing something wrong … you should have done something to separate yourself.”

Gherardi, Ryan Sheridan and Jennifer Sheridan are jointly responsible for paying $2.4 million in restitution to the Ohio Department of Medicaid, but it’s possible there were be little of that restitution left to pay once cars, homes and other items are sold off that were seized by the federal government, Bennett said.

Jennifer Sheridan, the final defendant in the scheme, will be sentenced at 10 a.m. June 16.