\u201cI offer my plea of \u2018guilty\u2019 freely and voluntarily and of my own accord,\u201d Boerman told<\/a> the U.S. District Court in Middle Tennessee in May. \u201cI understand that should this plea of guilty be accepted, I will be a convicted felon in the eyes of the law for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Your tax-deductible gift supports our mission of reporting the truth and restoring the church. Donate $50 or more to The Roys Report, and you can elect to receive our featured offer, \u201cWhen Shepherds Prey: Confronting Abuse in Church Leadership\u2014A Call for Reformation\u201d by Ron Cantor. \u2013 click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Remnant Fellowship, founded by the late Gwen Shamblin and now led by Shamblin\u2019s daughter Elizabeth Kaufmann<\/a>, has quietly scrubbed Boerman from its website. Boerman was listed as part of the leadership team starting in 2021<\/a>, around the same time, according to the government\u2019s account, she began perpetrating her fraud.<\/p>\n Her attorney told the court that she ministered to families facing marital troubles, medical problems and financial difficulties.<\/p>\n Boerman\u2019s biographical statement on the church website said she followed Shamblin\u2019s teachings in every aspect of her life, including \u201ccareer decisions, travels, finances and investments.\u201d She credited Shamblin with showing her the biblical principles that lead to \u201canswered prayer through righteous living.\u201d<\/p>\n Shamblin, who died in a plane crash in May 2021, had called<\/a> Boerman a personal friend.<\/p>\n The Remnant Fellowship founder was accused of being an authoritarian leader in docuseries \u201cThe Way Down,\u201d which aired on HBO Max in 2021-22. Former members said<\/a> that the church and its associated weight-loss ministry were \u201call about appearances,\u201d and Shamblin insisted all the women in the church become her \u201cclones.\u201d<\/p>\n Shamblin\u2019s son Michael told<\/a> WTVF Ch. 5, Nashville\u2019s CBS affiliate, that she was a controlling narcissist.<\/p>\n \u201cPraise, power \u2014 she loved the attention, she loved the spotlight,\u201d he said<\/a> in 2024. \u201cI believe she absolutely saw herself as a prophet.\u201d<\/p>\n \nSpiritual weight loss program attracted thousands\n<\/p>\n Shamblin launched Weigh Down in 1986. A trained dietician, she opposed counting calories and swearing off certain foods and said people just needed to learn to listen to their bodies. She added a spiritual component to the program in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you focus your attention on God and prayer instead of the magnetic pull of the refrigerator, it\u2019s amazing how free you\u2019ll be,\u201d Shamblin told<\/a> The Washington Post. \u201cI teach people to transfer over their love of food to a love of God. Once you stop obsessing on the food, you\u2019ll be able to stop right in the middle of that candy bar.\u201d<\/p>\n The program was wildly popular. More than 600 churches across the country offered Shamblin\u2019s 12-week, $103 course in 1994. The number of participating churches grew, according to contemporary news reports, to 1,000 in 1995; 5,000 in 1996; 9,000 in 1997; and 15,000 in 1998.<\/p>\n Shamblin\u2019s book, \u201cThe Weigh Down Diet,\u201d sold 400,000 copies in one year. Her Nashville-based ministry quickly outgrew its headquarters, and she made enough money to spend $2.3 million on a pre-Civil War plantation home known as Ashland.<\/p>\n In 1999, Shamblin decided to start her own church.<\/p>\n She left her Church of Christ congregation and planted Remnant Fellowship in Brentwood with about 80 people. She said at the time that American Christianity, including the most conservative traditions, had become too lax and permissive. She did not believe women should lead churches \u2014 except when there were no men to do the job.<\/p>\n \u201cHow could anyone read the Bible and not see that men are meant to lead?\u201d she told<\/a> The New Yorker while snacking on candy. \u201cI felt so sorry for God that there wasn\u2019t a man doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n Shamblin immediately stirred further controversy when she rejected<\/a> orthodox Christian teaching about the Trinity. She said the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not one in being and not equal. According to Shamblin, Scripture always teaches hierarchy, and Christians, following Christ, need to learn submission.<\/p>\n Thousands of churches canceled<\/a> their Weigh Down classes. Shamblin told Christianity Today, however, the controversy would quickly pass.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople don\u2019t care about this,\u201d she said<\/a> in 2000. \u201cThey don\u2019t care about the Trinity. \u2026 What women want is weight loss.\u201d<\/p>\n \nJoined Remnant Church in her 20s\n<\/p>\n The break from traditional Christian teaching actually attracted some followers.<\/p>\n Boerman joined Shamblin\u2019s church in 2002 at the age of 25. She and her future husband, Chris, said they found Remnant Fellowship after they \u201cmade the commitment \u2026 to leave mainstream Christianity.\u201d They thought Shamblin\u2019s teaching was \u201crevolutionary\u201d and a return to \u201cmere Christianity.\u201d They also liked the fact she was a strong leader.<\/p>\n The two married at Shamblin\u2019s home in 2005 and began having children a few years after that. Boerman worked for Wang Vision Institute in Nashville for about a decade, spent a few more at Cool Vision Eye Care in Franklin, then took ownership of Brentwood Eye Clinic in 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to Boerman\u2019s attorney, she turned the clinic into \u201ca leading referral center for advanced, recalcitrant ocular surface disease and dry eye disease.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Boerman\u2019s patients gave her rave reviews on Google and Yelp.<\/p>\n \u201cThey made me feel like I was cared for from the moment I walked in, to the moment I walked out,\u201d one reviewer wrote in 2020. \u201cDr. Boerman took the time to really listen to my concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n At least one person, though, noticed abnormalities in the insurance billing and gave Brentwood Eye Clinic a one-star review.<\/p>\n Experts estimate<\/a> that Medicare loses between $60 and $100 billion to fraud every year. In 2025, federal prosecutors charged<\/a> 324 people across the country with schemes ranging from unnecessary procedures to kickbacks to phantom billing.<\/p>\n Federal investigators found<\/a> \u201cfalse, fictitious, and fraudulent\u201d claims at the Brentwood clinic starting in 2020. Some of the false claims were filed with the state insurance program TennCare.<\/p>\n U.S. Attorney Braden Boucek said Boerman ordered staff to create false records to support the insurance claims.<\/p>\n \nCOVID-19 cited as excuse\n<\/p>\n Boerman\u2019s attorney, Oliver Benton Curtis III, told the court she was really trying to help her patients. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she started doubling up dry-eye treatments to reduce risk or exposure to the virus. Medicare would only cover one treatment per visit, so Boerman had staff falsify the paperwork.<\/p>\n Her attorney admitted this did lead to nearly $7 million in improper billing.<\/p>\n The federal prosecutor noted in court Thursday that the amount of fraud increased in 2022, even though concerns about COVID-19 had trailed off. Boerman kept stealing from Medicare until she was caught.<\/p>\n Boerman did not fight the charges. In March, she waived<\/a> her right to have a grand jury determine whether there was probable cause to indict her. In May, she pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n \u201cShe readily acknowledges her wrongdoing and feels immense regret for the impact her actions have had on Medicare and her patients\u2019 trust in her,\u201d Curtis told<\/a> the court. \u201cDr. Boerman similarly regrets the impact her actions have had on her family and local community.\u201d<\/p>\n Boerman asked the judge to consider her lack of criminal record, her need to care for her children and the major role faith plays in her life. She suggested a 12-month sentence, instead of the maximum possible five-year sentence.<\/p>\n Judge William \u201cChip\u201d Campbell Jr. gave her 42 months. He said fraud undermines the Medicare system, which depends on honest billing, and Boerman was not just \u201ccutting corners.\u201d She will also be required to pay back $6.9 million.<\/p>\n The court did show some leniency, however. Boerman was told to report to authorities after the Christmas holidays. She will begin her prison sentence on Jan. 4.<\/p>\n![\"Remnant](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Remnant-Fellowship-Church-Grounds.jpg\")
Remnant Fellowship in Brentwood, Tennessee, removed Helen Boerman from its leadership page after her guilty plea. She had been listed as a leader since 2021. (Photo courtesy of remnantfellowship.org)<\/p>\n![\"Gwen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/468556147_10162104481104441_3199734140174811457_n.jpg\")
Gwen Shamblin founded the Weigh Down program in 1986, teaching participants to redirect their appetite for food toward God. Her book \u201cThe Weigh Down Diet\u201d sold 400,000 copies in a single year. (Photo courtesy of Facebook)<\/p>\n![\"Helen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-10-at-8.39.05-PM.png\")
Helen and Chris Boerman appeared on Remnant Fellowship\u2019s leadership page until the church scrubbed it following her guilty plea. (Photo courtesy of Internet Archive)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Helen-Boerman-and-Gwen-1024x574.jpg\")
Helen Boerman appears with Gwen Shamblin Lara on a Weigh Down program, \u201cHow to Have Healthy Babies.\u201d (Video screengrab)<\/p>\n
![\"Daniel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/daniel-150x150.jpg\")
Daniel Silliman<\/a> is senior reporter\/editor at The Roys Report. He began his two decades in journalism covering crime in Atlanta and has since led major investigations into abuse and misconduct in Christian contexts. Daniel and his wife live in Johnson City, Tennessee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A leader of the controversial Tennessee church known for its \u201cWeigh Down\u201d weight loss program was sentenced Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[202221,358631,97,252,253,358632,358633,358634],"class_list":["post-847837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-financial-fraud","tag-gwen-shamblin","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-helen-boerman","tag-remnant-fellowship","tag-weigh-down"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}