A Missouri legislator is scheduled to go on trial soon in two alleged fraud schemes.

Nixa State Representative Tricia Derges is scheduled to go on trial beginning August 16 for 23 felony counts.

Last March, a federal grand jury indictment alleges Derges fraudulently received about 300-thousand-dollars in federal coronavirus aid for nonprofit medical and dental clinics she operates in southwest Missouri. 

Charges from last February allege that Derges sold fake stem cell treatments at the medical clinics in Springfield, Branson, and Ozark – a scheme totaling about 200-thousand-dollars. 

The investigation began after she gave false or misleading statements in April 2020 to a Springfield television station about potentially using stem cells to treat COVID-19.

During a court appearance last March, Derges pled not guilty to all 23 charges. 

Don Ledford, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Missouri, says the trial will be at the federal courthouse in southwest Missouri’s Springfield. It will last two weeks.