Three years ago, Stephanie Bellanger publicly shared her story of supporting her husband, Frank, through his battle with addiction. It was a struggle that consumed their lives for much of the preceding decade, she told the audience: “My own therapist said … ‘that person that you were 10 years ago that you considered to be strong, that you considered to be with it, that had it together, you let her get away from you so you could devote all of your energy into holding up Frank and holding him together.’”
During the first week in February 2019, Stephanie stayed home from work all week because her husband’s condition had spiraled. “Frank was a mess,” she continued. “And he was at the point where I cannot allow him to be alone with our son.” She said Frank’s recovery began Feb. 8, 2019, when Recovery Centers of America picked him up for inpatient treatment.
Roughly four months later, Frank Bellanger was barely out of treatment when he took steps to secure a foothold in Richmond’s exploding sober home industry. He founded Starfish Recovery LLC in June 2019, soon coined Starfish Recovery & Wellness, and started promoting the business.
Before filing paperwork for Starfish, Frank last worked in 2012 as a quality assurance specialist in the highway construction industry, per his Facebook employment history.
Sometime before the end of 2019, he started working at The McShin Foundation — his first known job in the recovery field. By mid-2020, barely a year out of treatment himself, Frank left McShin and opened the first Starfish sober home in partnership with his wife.
As I reported in January, Frank got off to a contentious start with the Virginia Association of Recovery Residences (VARR) — the state-funded nonprofit charged with upholding ethical standards in certified recovery housing. In September 2020, he submitted a complaint to the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS), the state agency that funds VARR, outlining conflicts of interest within VARR leadership.
At some point during the following year, the relationship took a drastic turn. The Bellangers gained a foothold in VARR’s inner circle and soon secured access to exclusive funding streams for programs and capacity expansion. By mid-2022, they were operating four recovery homes.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Starfish soon mirrored practices of organizations run by VARR leaders — most notably, obstructing residents’ choices about their own mental health care.
Starfish residents become River City hostages
Across the continuum of peer-based and clinical substance use services, personal autonomy is a well-established human right. It empowers each person to accept or reject healthcare services and to choose their own providers.
Part of VARR’s stated purpose is to promote the rights of people living in recovery housing. But mounting evidence suggests resident autonomy is being systematically stifled for the collective profit of those within VARR’s inner circle.
In December, I reported on allegations that WAR Foundation and True Recovery RVA were pressuring residents into the Medicaid-funded Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) at River City Comprehensive Counseling Services — a business owned by VARR board member Jimmy Christmas.
Starting in January 2022, River City’s priority access to residents of VARR-certified housing expanded with Starfish — where sources say resident autonomy has taken a backseat to Frank and Stephanie Bellangers’ interest in directing a “streamline” of Medicaid recipients to River City.
According to former residents and employees, the Bellangers routinely leveraged the threat of eviction, what they call “discharge,” to compel participation in River City IOP, regardless of residents’ individual needs and circumstances.
The following sample of correspondence corroborates their accounts.
Starfish Recovery presents itself as a trauma-informed organization. Its website states:
We believe that in many cases, the catalyst for addiction is trauma. As a trauma-informed organization, we believe that only by addressing this root cause will individuals ever be able to truly recover.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, trauma-informed organizations foster “empowerment, voice and choice”:
Organizations understand the importance of power differentials and ways in which clients, historically, have been diminished in voice and choice and are often recipients of coercive treatment. Clients are supported in shared decision-making, choice, and goal setting to determine the plan of action they need to heal and move forward. They are supported in cultivating self-advocacy skills. Staff are facilitators of recovery rather than controllers of recovery.
But Starfish communications continued to document the absence of voice and choice for residents:
Residents who came to Starfish already working with their own therapist were still pressured to fill a seat at River City, according to Merrianne (“Mary”) Seifert, the former program director, as well as former participants.
“[Residents] were told they couldn’t go to the people they were already seeing,” Seifert said. “They had to go to River City. And I don’t feel that’s right because they were paying their bed fees.”
Seifert said that when residents insisted on keeping their preferred therapist, Frank’s protocol was clear: “Let’s find a way to get them out.” Instead of forcing them into River City IOP, residents were targeted for removal through write-ups for other infractions. “Find me something on them,” another former employee recalled Frank saying when he wanted to “get rid of” a resident.
Screenshot: @StarfishRecoveryandWellness/ Facebook
In addition to conflicting with trauma-informed principles, steering residents to specific providers violates Virgina’s Code of Ethical Conduct for Certified Peer Recovery Specialists (CPRS), which states:
The services I provide will be guided by the principle of self‐determination to assist others in achieving their needs and goals. This includes advocating for the decisions of the peers regarding professional and other services.
Frank Bellanger is a CPRS, and according to the Bellangers’ approved grant proposal to Henrico County, Starfish uses CPRS staff for service delivery.
Virginia regulations also outline basic human rights for people receiving services from DBHDS-licensed providers, such as River City:
- “Each individual has a right to participate meaningfully in decisions regarding all aspects of services affecting him,” including the right to “consent or not consent to receive or participate in services.”
- “Providers shall respond to an individual’s request for discharge set forth in statute and shall make sure that the individual is not subject to punishment, reprisal, or reduction in services because he makes a request.” (emphasis added)
- “Providers shall not deliver any service to an individual without an ISP (Individualized Service Plan) that is tailored specifically to the needs and expressed preferences of the individual …”
In a blog on what to look for in a sober living home, the Louisiana Association of Recovery Residences (LARR) spelled out the problem of forcing residents into IOP with select providers:
Many times the sober living home has a deal worked out with the treatment centers where they will get the referral from the treatment center (i.e. money) as long as the sober house mandates that the resident go to that treatment [center’s] IOP program (i.e. money). … A patient will usually agree to go to the [center’s] IOP program. But weeks after attending they see that the program is not what they were told it was and/or they receive no value from it. Now, the resident of the home has to make a decision. Do they waste 3 hrs a day- 3 days a week in a program they know they are not getting anything out of, or do they leave the IOP program and subsequently [lose] their housing? We have seen a commonality in how well a person does be directly affected by this pressure.
River City’s therapeutic value still in question
At a minimum, IOP consists of nine hours of weekly group therapy, which is divided into three sessions lasting three hours each. Most residents I spoke with attended virtually, and across the board, they described it as unhelpful at best. They said it did not feel like “real therapy,” was “pointless,” and was something they just “had to get through.”
Virtual attendance was often the only way residents could comply with Starfish’s IOP mandate while keeping up with their jobs and the many other responsibilities that parallel recovery residence living — probation requirements, 12-step meetings, house meetings, and addiction medicine appointments, among others.
Whether residents could meaningfully engage in IOP reportedly made no difference. All they had to do was log on and “check in.” Residents often attended session while at work, in transit, or in other public places:
Residents multi-tasked in this way “all the time,” a former employee told me. “You could do IOP wherever.”
Participants from multiple recovery housing organizations said that one session per week in River City IOP was spent watching movies.
The Medicaid cash flow
As of July 1, 2022, Medicaid reimburses for IOP at $250 per session, per person.
Between Starfish and River City, multiple former residents and employees identified Starfish — the unregulated, peer-run organization — as the entity overtly obstructing patient choice.
This leaves River City either:
- disconnected from the “needs and preferences” of patients who say they felt forced into IOP, or
- knowingly participating in a system that profited from their lack of choice.
Sources previously reported that True Recovery and WAR Foundation received kickbacks from River City for IOP referrals — conduct that would constitute a federal crime under the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act.
Seifert says Starfish is engaged in the same practice. “Frank made it very clear he can’t get paid unless they’re going to IOP,” she said. “He told me one month he got a $12,000 check from Jimmy Christmas.” She added: “Frank knew it was wrong. He told me I couldn’t tell anybody.”
Since December, six of the nine VARR board members have rotated off the board. Stephanie Bellanger was subsequently elected to the board, and Jimmy Christmas was promoted to vice chairman.
Christmas and the Bellangers did not agree to be interviewed, nor did they respond to written questions or requests for comment.
The next article will continue to explore Starfish, with a deeper look at how residents are treated there. If you have experience with Starfish or another Richmond area recovery home, I encourage you to reach out. Your name and any identifying details will not be shared without your permission.
This article was edited for clarity and readability. No substantive changes were made.
More on Frank Bellanger and Starfish Recovery & Wellness:
Scroll below to view investigative stories in The Parham Papers series, or visit the homepage to explore all articles, including legislative updates.
lmfao Frank I knew you were an all American hypocrite since the second I rejected your advances over and over in the McShin parking lot but for you to be corrupt as hell too? [Redacted]. [Redacted].
Once again, thank you!!!!
Come on Frank. That’s not a very nice way to talk to your participants now is it.
Keep killing the CrossFit tho………..
Thank god these terrible people were finally mentioned in this. I hope next you cover all of the horrendous things this poor excuse of a man has done to his female participants.
Frank, pig headed and constantly spouting conservative bullshit publicly online, wants a piece of the pie and is willing to play dirty. At least David Rook is charismatic…. Frank: Another addict raised in peer recovery with no knowledge or understanding of the clinical world and what that entails, thinks he can intake someone into IOP like he has the credentials to back that up. Sorry, but Frank deserves all the bad things that are going to happen to him after DBHDS comes looking for him. And I say that with the same lack of empathy, compassion, and understanding that Frank lacked when speaking about his participants. [Redacted].
Thank you Mary for speaking up. So happy to see the truth coming out.
Hey Frank is there any evidence-based data contradicting these allegations? Perhaps a study from Europe or Texas?
You could literally do a whole separate series on this guy and the shady things he does. He shouldn’t be allowed to operate a business, let alone a business in this field.
I can’t stop reading and I’m super grateful for the work being done in this piece. These things are super important to discuss. Keep them coming!
Virtual IOPs that are nothing more than checkboxes can certainly be inconvenient, even frustrating. Hell, they might even make you want to use. I remember when everything made me want to use. But, if I were serious about recovery and if I were at risk of losing my recovery housing and going back to jail because of missing an IOP – well – I’d go to WAWA to get food with my boyfriend some other time. I’d schedule dentist appointments around my IOPs. I’d plan my day better. I make program requirements a priority and stop playing games. If the dopeman asked these participants to sit in IOP 3x a week for a fix – you can bet your ass these people would have perfect attendance.
My point is that the lower-case “c” corruption being “exposed” here might actually be a way to prepare addicts to live life on life’s terms – because life’s terms are corrupt. We can’t change all of our circumstances but we can change how we react to them.
These soft, trauma-informed standards perpetuate addiction. We’re so quick to classify everything as healthcare and paint with broad stokes these days. You can’t be a victim and a volunteer at the same time.
Don’t want to be under the thumb of corrupt individuals? Do whatever it takes to stay clean and sober and live an independent life on life’s terms. No one owes you anything. Put them out of business by staying clean, getting off probation, and protecting your recovery. Take some ownership; that’s real self-determination and autonomy.
The point is that people are able to do all of these other things at the same time and still get credit. River City and Starfish both know it’s happening because participants are reporting it knowing full and well nobody cares. Just because there might be some sort of a life lesson in there doesn’t change anything about the fact that participants are being used for profit and there is no consideration to their success in recovery and outside of jail.
No doubt. I tried to add some clarifying statements and it doesn’t look like they went through. I’ll try again. I should not have used quotations around the word “exposed” or “corruption.” That was a plain mistake and an oversight that should have been edited. There is clearly real corruption and the author is doing a great job of really exposing it – to that I say bravo! This has been the case from the beginning. These people deserve all the negative consequences that will accompany their real ethics violations. I think my word choices and grammar made it seem like I was minimizing the importance of the content here or defending the subjects – that was 100% not my intention. This is great stuff and important stuff.
My comments (and thanks for giving me a space to share them) are from the perspective of an addict in recovery who understands the dangers of rejoicing over the downfall of others – like I see in some of the self-righteous comments above – getting high off vindication. It’s helpful to remember that we put ourselves in these situations. We are not the victims of circumstance; life doesn’t suddenly become fair and easy because we decided to get clean; but we get better at dealing with injustice and difficulty because we accept that the only thing we can change in most cases is ourselves. We also must learn to have compassion for others.
I am waving the white flag though because I think I should have kept my opinions to myself rather than hi-jacking the comment thread to go on my own self-righteous rant about “recovery philosophy.”
Proverbs 18:2 “A fool has no delight in understanding, But only in broadcasting his own opinion.”
I have been foolish – yet again – and once again I’m asking for forgiveness.
I would love to see starfish be shut down, especially for the culture that frank promotes, my wife was part of that program. He promised the world to her when we first made contact about the program. Turned out to be a fraud. There were no options with the iop program. Just river city. Couldn’t look for anything else, couldn’t go anywhere else. Just river city. Frank bellanger, Stephanie bellanger, and Jimmy Christmas need to go to federal prison for fraud, I mean stephanie was a employee of the federal government. She should’ve known better to get involved with this.
I don’t really see the participants complaining about the IOP requirements in this installment. What I do see is a lack of regard for real meaningful healing and recovery for Starfish participants by the owners of the organization. It seems like they value funneling participants into river city above all else.. why is that? What I do know is that as soon as Medicaid reimbursement for peer services became a thing was widely known among the staff at these local organizations that Christmas would pay for people. It has been openly talked about for years, it was so openly discussed nobody knew it was illegal. My guess is that even the most basic investigation into kickbacks by law enforcement would turn up more than enough for convictions.
I should clarify that the above comment is directed towards addicts and people in recovery who might be reading all this. I shouldn’t have used quotations around the word “exposed,” by the way – that was just a mistake and an oversight. There is quality journalism and important investigative work being done here to address some truly corrupt people who are doing some truly corrupt things – they deserve all the negative attention they’re getting and I support whatever consequences may come their way. I didn’t mean to minimize that in any way. I am commenting with addicts and people in recovery foremost in mind and just adding my own thoughts on the broader, recovery-related aspects of the whole conversation. I hope that isn’t offensive or undermining in any way to the author! If so, not at all my intention! Sorry that I keep having to back-pedal. I am genuinely grateful for the discussion and information being shared in this space!
Lance upon a midnight dreary
As I pondered weak and weary
I heard a knocking.
The Feds a knocking on my chamber door!
I think this is a great way to expose people who call themselves helping addicts I worked in a place such as this and I quit especially when I realized they was not for the addict just the dollar when I went to the director about the recovery house I was told to stay in my lane but as a peer I suppose to advocate for the individual .when I saw that and as a recovery addict myself it did not fiill right on my spirit Especially when you have a so call recovery addict who runs the recovery houses says he loves to get white young girls in the house and they don’t pay because of IOP he find them in a vulnerable state of mind. And they do what he ask just so they have somewhere to lay their head
Frank let gambling tournaments go on in a recovery house.
Frank has forced someone to come to CrossFit while they were detoxing.
Frank has screamed in peoples faces so hard they hard felt his hot fucking breathe on their face.
Frank has tried to force people into a “level-up” house even though the client wanted to stay in the other because of location to work, home group etc.
I know of someone who was in the IOP and would only get calls from them at work despite giving availability. The scheduling system is broken. At least be better about that. People sure are paying enough for better quality
Some people are getting defensive and wanting to promote tolerance in these instances. But we all know in recovery that sometimes tolerance can blur into enabling toxic behavior and I’m absolutely sick of continuously seeing enabling of stuff like this.
Worst experience ever. They kicked me put my third night for a disagreement with my house manager about someone eating my food. Basically a crook
The only difference between this chapter and the others is that NO ONE is coming to Frank’s defense. That says a lot. I’m sure his wife will [redacted] and try to “sue” the author. That’s usually her go to tactic whenever someone says something negative about her husband. The level of denial is sad. It’s a known thing in the rooms how Frank is a predator to his female participants, [redacted]. [Redacted]. All just really sad. I hope more people come forward so you can expose them even further.
Can we please have one of these about [redacted]? Or what about the degradation of meetings in this area (survivors) due to creepy sexual predators chairing said meetings. Or maybe one about where the current president of a major recovery house that rhymes with [redacted], paying a participant to watch them have sex with a crack whore and then paying for him not to say anything. [Redacted]. [Redacted].
Yes, Franks wife will be [redacted]. He is a predator and she is text book “co dependent” They don’t care about helping people. They can’t even help themselves. RVA recovery is a travesty.
Truth Bomb:
It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”
— Joseph Heller, Catch-22
[Redacted].
And I’m not even scratching the surface on the kickback payments he DOES receive from Christmas Mary is 100% telling facts about the 12000 he received from him I know this because his ego is so huge and he is so cocky he can’t help but brag about it. I’m also not even going to start on the whole PHP sham, only say it’s just like IOP but even MORE of a cash cow and that they will discharge someone ONLY after they’ve done their 10 days of PHP even if they are in mental crisis and need to be transferred to a higher level of care or if they are getting High in the house they won’t be discharged until after, and then he “starts the process” of finding small things on them to have them discharged! They also LOVE talking peoples money and keeping them there until they don’t have to give a refund and the very next day discharging them.
Evolution House was bragging about the kickbacks they receive from Christmas too. River City has roped in probably more recovery houses in the state than we even know about.
Hate to say it but the world was a better place when Frank was locked up.
Exposing Frank and his [redacted] wife for who they really are – predators.
It astounds me that DBHDS hasn’t revoked River City’s IOP license. Makes me suspicious that someone there is covering for them. Or dare I say, even in on the scheme. Clearly, federal laws have been violated, and Insurance fraud has been committed. The DOJ or Attorney General should literally be knocking on these people’s doors. Where are they!? Is DBHDS covering for them? Does someone have the phone number or email of the Attorney General? If so, please list it. If so many people call and report, they have to listen, right? Where’s the riot!!!
From VA Attorney General’s website: “If you would like to report a suspected case of Medicaid fraud or have questions, please contact us at: 804-371-0779 or 1-800-371-0824 or email us at MFCU_mail@oag.state.va.us. Fighting Medicaid fraud is of vital importance to Attorney General Miyares.”
Please, everyone, email the Attorney General. This is the only way we can clean house in RVA. Please.
I emailed and asked Mark Blackwell why he rolled like this. He told me to not email him any more. [Redacted].
Anyone can report a complaint here-
https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/report-fraud/
Great link above to report these people. I’m sending in 3 separate complaints under Healthcare Fraud.
One for each of these – Improper billing, Kickbacks, and Medically unnecessary services. All three have been clearly violated. I encourage EVERYONE to do the same. We need to take a stand that we will not tolerate this behavior in our recovery community. #accountability
Frank was a straight jackass and extremely sick. Yells rudely at his staff, kicked me out for my insurance not covering IOP.
I hope his business fails because he doesn’t care about other people he just isn’t cut out for the business world. He started Starfish for ego and resentment reasons.
Yes agreed Frank is [redacted]. [Redacted]. He tried to report me for violating my probation when i said i needed my ADHD medicine. He jumped up and down shouting about how he is going to be remembered when he is dead but those of us the audience will be forgotten. A total cartoon character who should not be allowed to exploit people in positions of vulnerability. His wife is just as incompetent and has no business being on the board of VARR. What a waste of resources.
Complaints can also be filed here against Peers, counselors etc.
https://www.dhp.virginia.gov/PractitionerResources/Enforcement/
Wondering if the individuals were still able to pay their bed fees without IOP?
There is an old saying in recovery. “If you get a horse thief clean and sober,what do you have ?” A clean and sober horse thief!”
I was a participant at starfish. I paid out of pocket for the 30 day intensive program. After this I started paying my bed fees, these bed fees kept increasing. I was then told by frank that the program was no longer able to help me and I needed to find another program. (Even though I was court ordered) I was holding up bed space for participants willing to pay for the 30 day program. I have witnessed the rage and anger first hand at house meetings. Thank you for all the hard work you put into this.
I can verify truth in all of this can’t say anything else because I signed their B.S. NDA. But I can add that the NDA is to keep ex employees from speaking the truth on their asses, however they don’t realize that didn’t cover all the illegal happenings that go on! who knows maybe I’ll say screw it and start spillin all the beans….. like I warned I’m not going to post, talk or speak the truth anonymously I’ll do that shit with my name out there or to your faces! Told y’all you screwed with the wrong one and that I’ve got the balls to walk straight through y’all and never flinch
I also plan on organizing a couple events this summer to bring attention to the shady side of all these places, I also need to add you’ve screwed with someone that can’t be brought into question as I live a life of truth and recovery that Frank can’t even dream up in his head! The only thing he likes to do it talk crap about his residents and even worse crap about each and every one of his employees behind their backs. He also only wants people around him that he can intimidate with his fake attitude! He comes across someone real that he knows wont put up with it he don’t have the sack too do it too them. And trust me the real ones aren’t around very long. Just the ones he knows he can control
NDAs are very hard to enforce and I doubt they cover illegal actions.
common theme i see in all of this more than anything is River City and Jimmy Christmas. He appears to be the biggest offender/worst of them all because he seems to be the puppet master.
Look into the you matter foundation, also a organization run by the bellangers. Franky needs to go to federal prison for fraud and [redacted].
Glenn Youngkin and Winsome Earl-Sears should be nervous about this publicity. This is happening under their noses in their capital. That photo-op isn’t aging well.
Yes I’m thinking we could use photo to garner this story the attention it deserves