fraud

WASHINGTON—A California man pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining $345,108 in COVID-19 pandemic relief loans from a financial institution and the Small Business Administration (SBA).

MIAMI—A South Florida jury found Aisladys Diaz, 45, and her daughter Ailensy Buron Diaz, 29, both of Miami, Florida, guilty of conspiracy to commit access device fraud, use of an unauthorized access device, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and wire fraud.

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Christopher Margait was sentenced to 65 months in prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud by fraudulently trafficking in orders for durable medical equipment (DME) such as back, knee, and wrist braces. Margait previously pled guilty to the charge and was sentenced before United States District Judge Denise Cote.

LAFAYETTE, Louisiana–A federal jury has returned a guilty verdict against Kristal Glover-Wing, 50, of Broussard, Louisiana, for one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and three counts of health care fraud following a trial that lasted nearly four weeks, announced United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown. Dr. Gary M. Wiltz and Dr. Charles H. Louis were each acquitted on their charges in the indictment. Judge Robert R. Summerhays presided over the trial.

A Southern California man pleaded guilty to submitting false enrollment applications to Medicare that hid the real owners of a fraudulent hospice company, which then submitted over $3.1 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare.

WASHINGTON (December 20, 2022)—Most of the providers who were enrolled in Medicare under COVID-19-related waivers and then had their enrollments revoked were durable medical equipment, prosthetics and orthotics (DMEPOS) suppliers, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

MIAMI (October 13, 2022)—A Unites States’ federal district judge has sentenced 56-year-old Ariel Madero Paez to 55 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for submitting more than $2.2 million in fraudulent billings to Medicare.

ST. LOUIS (September 30, 2022)—United States District Judge Stephen R. Clark sentenced a woman from St. Charles, Missouri to four years and nine months in prison for her role in a $2.5 million fraud involving Missouri’s Medicaid program and a nearly $60,000 fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loan.

Judge Clark also ordered Barbara Martin, 63, to repay $2,566,989 to Missouri’s Medicaid program and $58,295 to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

WASHINTON, D.C. (September 9, 2022)—More than 1,700 Medicare providers have indications that they fraudulently billed Medicare for telehealth services, according to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG). These providers billed telehealth services for about half a million beneficiaries and received a total of $127.7 million in Medicare fee-for-service payments.

PITTSBURGH (August 25, 2022)—A federal court has ordered a Pennsylvania mother and daughter to pay more than $2.4 million in overtime back wages and liquidated damages, after a three-day trial confirmed the pair used illegal pay practices to avoid paying full wages to 345 workers who provided daily living assistance and home healthcare in the Pittsburgh area.
 

GREENVILLE, Miss. (April 8, 2022)—A federal jury convicted a Cleveland, Mississippi physician on charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud for his role in referring and certifying patients to hospice who were not terminally ill and should not have been placed on hospice care.

BOSTON (March 29, 2022)—Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced that home health agency Compassionate Homecare, Inc. has agreed to pay $6.53 million to MassHealth to resolve allegations that it billed MassHealth for services that were not authorized by a physician. In addition, up to $375,000 will be set aside for payment of unpaid wages for former Compassionate employees.

SACREMENTO, Calif. (March 18, 2022)—Two members of a network that operated and facilitated a large-scale “grandparent scam,” pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy. Timothy Ingram, aka Bleezy, 29, of North Hollywood, California pleaded guilty on March 2, and Jack Owuor, 25, of Paramount, California pleaded guilty on March 9.

BOSTON (February 18, 2022)—A Florida man was sentenced for his role in a multi-million-dollar Medicare fraud scheme involving durable medical equipment (DME).

PORTLAND, Maine (February 1, 2022)—A federal grand jury in Portland, Maine, returned an indictment charging four managers of home health care agencies with participating in a conspiracy to suppress the wages and restrict the job mobility of essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

AUSTIN, Texas (December 9, 2021)—Two doctors who helped a local hospice agency scam Medicare were sentenced to a combined 23 years in prison for health care fraud, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.