A woman awaiting trial here on charges of stealing more than $500,000 from The Queen's Medical Center is now accused of defrauding a Florida health group of more than $1 million and using $320,000 of the proceeds to buy a skybox at Tampa Bay Buccaneer football games.

Patricia M. Syling is back in custody in Hawai'i after federal authorities in Florida arrested her Sept. 29 because of the new allegations.

In a court hearing Wednesday, Syling's lawyer, Myles Breiner, defended her activities in Florida, saying she used legitimate business income to help her employer, Citrus Health Care Inc., greatly expand its operations.

Syling used the skybox at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa to entertain doctors interested in providing medical services to Citrus Health, a Tampa-based Health Maintenance Organization, or HMO, Breiner said.

Syling helped Citrus Health expand its business to eight additional Florida counties outside Tampa, bringing as much as $39 million in new income per county to the HMO, Breiner said.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney William Shipley, who is prosecuting Syling here, argued that Citrus Health has filed a civil fraud lawsuit in Florida state court against Syling. And Shipley said not all the money Syling received from Citrus Health has been accounted for.

She did spend more than $320,000 on the skybox deal, which also included 18 tickets to the National Football League Super Bowl game to be played in Tampa in February, Shipley said.

Syling also bought two Mercedes-Benz automobiles for more than $100,000 and spent $300,000 "on a house in Florida," according to Shipley.

Breiner said all the expenditures were legitimate and financial records of all Syling's income and spending have been supplied to federal authorities.

He noted that Syling has not been charged with criminal offenses in Florida and the allegations against her there are contained in a civil suit filed by Citrus Health.

He said Syling plans to marry in Florida next year and asked that she be allowed to return there. Her mother and four children are also there, Breiner said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Kobayashi delayed ruling on the request until later this month.

According to the civil suit in Florida, Syling landed a job as corporate compliance officer with Citrus Health last October by allegedly giving a false name, Patricia Dunne, and using her ex-husband's Social Security number and a phony resume.

Syling also worked as a corporate compliance officer at Queen's from April 2002 through July 2004.

According to allegations filed in Florida and Hawai'i courts, Syling used similar schemes to defraud both Queen's and Citrus Health of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

She is accused in both jurisdictions of steering hospital debt collection work to companies that she owned and failing to disclose her ties to the companies to her employers.

Syling was indicted here in August 2007 of eight counts of mail fraud. She has pleaded not guilty to those charges and is scheduled to go to trial in March.

Syling was released from custody here last year after signing an unsecured $50,000 bond and was allowed to live and work in the Tampa area where her mother lives, according to court records.

Shipley said in court this week that Syling did not tell Florida federal officials about her job at Citrus Health and she did not tell Citrus Health that she had been indicted on fraud charges in Hawai'i.

Citrus Health alleged in its lawsuit that Syling steered hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of company business to a Tennessee firm, Healthcare SolutionsGroup, which Syling incorporated in 2007. The company's address turned out to be Syling's mother's home in Lutz, Florida, according to the lawsuit.

Among the payments Syling arranged for Citrus Health to make to HSG, the lawsuit said, was $50,000 for "fraud and abuse" training.

Breiner alleged that Citrus Health fired Syling and filed suit against her the week after she "blew the whistle" on illegal activities at the HMO.

Citrus Health lawyer Lilburne Railey did not respond yesterday to a request for comment about Breiner's allegations.