After spending more than three years in federal prison for fraud, a former Missouri state lawmaker has been granted supervised release and is seeking a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Tricia Derges, elected to Missouri House of Representatives in 2020, founded and operated several medical clinics in southwest Missouri. In 2022, she was found guilty of 22 charges related to financial fraud, illegally providing prescription drugs and lying to patients at her clinics. She was convicted of 10 counts of distributing oxycodone and Adderall over the internet without valid prescriptions, 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of making false statements to a federal law enforcement agent. Her assistant physician license was also revoked.
According
to previous News-Leader reporting, Derges was found to have fraudulently obtained federal aid money for her nonprofit clinic, mixed money between her nonprofit Lift Up Springfield and her for-profit Ozark Valley Medical Clinic locations, and lied to patients about "stem cell" treatments that did not contain stem cells in a nearly $200,000 fraud scheme. Federal prosecutors had accused her of applying for nearly $900,000 in government COVID-19 relief funds through her nonprofit for work that was actually being done and paid for at her for-profit clinics.
Derges was sentenced in early 2023 to serve six years and three months in prison. According to previous reporting, while she apologized, she did not take full responsibility for the crimes committed.
In July, Derges was released from federal prison on pre-release custody after receiving credit under the First Step Act and Second Chance Act. Her full release is scheduled for Sept. 2, 2027. The Federal Bureau of Prisons database only indicates her release is being managed by a Residential Reentry Management field office in Kansas City. While the BOP would not disclose whether Derges was released to a halfway house or on home confinement citing safety and security reasons, her public posts on Facebook suggest the latter.
Despite several years spent behind bars, Derges is still asserting her innocence. She applied for a presidential pardon in 2025 and is seeking to frame her conviction as a result of a politicized federal pandemic narrative. Her clemency case is still pending, according to the Office of the Pardon Attorney database.
Via social media and dedicated website arguing for her forgiveness, Derges characterizes her conviction as a "witch hunt" and a result of her pursuing COVID-19 treatments that did not align with the federal stance. While in prison, Derges also attempted to appeal her conviction, though unsuccessfully. A Branson-based filmmaker has also produced a documentary defending Derges, featuring former patients and associates speaking favorably of her.
Following Derges's conviction, Missouri lawmakers made several changes to crack down on how an assistant physician license can be obtained. According to reporting by the Missouri Independent, the changes included requiring applicants to be graduates of either a U.S.-based school recognized by the national medical and osteopathic school accreditation agencies or a non-U.S. school accredited by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. Derges graduated from Caribbean Medical University in Curaçao.
Marta Mieze covers local government at the News-Leader. Have feedback, tips or story ideas? Contact her at mmieze@news-leader.com.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Former Missouri lawmaker convicted of COVID fraud seeks Trump pardon
