Former executives of Tampa software company are acquitted of fraud

A federal judge has overturned a guilty verdict against two former Tampa businessmen, saying the statute of limitations had expired in the fraud case.

As a result, John Kang and John P. Sessions, the former president and chief operating officer, respectively, of Medical Manager Health Systems, have been acquitted of charges that they fraudulently inflated the company's revenues between 1997 and 2003.

A jury in Charleston, S.C., had convicted the men following a seven-week trial in February. But U.S. District Judge David C. Norton ruled Thursday that the government had not brought the case in a timely fashion and vacated the guilty verdict, which carried a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

A high-flying Tampa company during the tech boom, Medical Manager developed software for doctors' offices. It was acquired by WebMD in 2000 and later sold to Sage Software.

John Lauro, who represented Kang, said, "It's extraordinarily rare for a court to dismiss a case at this stage on these grounds. We're unbelievably pleased."