November 8, 2016

Niurka Fernandez and her son Roberto Alvarez were sentenced to 120 months and 30 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in spearheading a $9.5 million health care fraud conspiracy that targeted Medicare Part D.  In addition, Fernandez and Alvarez were ordered to pay respectively $9.5 million and $1.5 million in restitution and to forfeit the same amounts.  As part of her guilty plea, Fernandez admitted she co-owned and operated...

November 7, 2016

Badar Ahmadani, co-owner of Detroit home health care company Hands on Healing Home Care Inc., was sentenced to 96 months in prison and to pay roughly $38 million in restitution for his role in a Medicare fraud scheme that caused approximately $33 million in losses.  According to evidence presented at trial, Ahmadani and his co-conspirators obtained patients by paying cash kickbacks to recruiters, who in turn paid cash to patients...

October 28, 2016

Zafar Mehmood, owner of several Detroit home health care companies was sentenced to 360 months in prison and to pay roughly $40.5 million for his role in a Medicare fraud scheme that caused approximately $33 million in losses.  According to evidence presented at trial, Mehmood participated in a scheme in which he obtained patients by paying cash kickbacks to recruiters, who in turn paid cash to patients to induce them...

October 25, 2016

Kansas City-based Best Choice Home Health Care Agency Inc. and its owner Reginald King agreed to pay $1.8 million to resolve allegations they violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks for the referral of Medicaid-covered patients for home and community-based healthcare services.  According to the government, King paid kickbacks to patient transporter Christopher Thomas for referrals to Best Choice.  The allegations originated in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Thomas...

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- November 14, 2016

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Jury Convicts Home Health Agency Owner in $13 Million Medicare Fraud Conspiracy – Defendant was convicted for paying illegal kickbacks to physicians, patient recruiters, and patients themselves for home health services that were not medically necessary, and that were not, in fact, provided.  DOJ Former Clinic CFO Awarded $1.9 million in Whistleblower Accounting Complaint – Gregg Becker’s suit alleged that he was forced to...

November 11, 2016

– New York announced the arrest of attorney Anthony Cornachio, 74, of Garden City and charges against NRI Group, LLC (“NRI”) and Canarsie A.W.A.R.E., Inc. (“Canarsie”), which are Medicaid-enrolled drug treatment programs controlled by Cornachio. The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (“MFCU”) also charged three-quarter housing operators Yury Baumblit, 66, and Rimma Baumblit, 60, of Brooklyn, and their company Back on Track Group, Inc. In papers filed in New...

In Their Own Words — Schneiderman

-- “Medicaid cannot serve as a personal piggy bank for criminals and fraudsters who have little regard for the well-being of their fellow New Yorkers.”  Eric T. Schneiderman, discussing Medicaid charges against the operators of Back on Track halfway house, which forced residents to seek help from specific substance abuse programs in exchange for kickbacks. Click here for more.

Whistleblower News From The Inside — November 11, 16

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team New charges for 2 halfway house operators accused in Medicaid fraud scheme -- The NYAG filed Medicaid fraud and money laundering charges against a lawyer who runs two outpatient substance-abuse programs in New York City and a couple who ran “Back on Track” halfway houses that catered to addicts, poor and mentally ill people, in which up to six men slept in bunk beds...

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- November 8, 2016

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Voting begins after competing claims of fraud and intimidation -- "After weeks of competing claims of fraud and intimidation on Election Day, few voters who headed to the polls early Tuesday encountered problems, though there were some long lines." ABC Corruption and the presidency -- "[C]orruption scandals and the White House have gone hand in hand almost since the founding of the Republic." Fortune...

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- October 31, 2016

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Detroit-Area Home Health Care Agency Owner Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for $33 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme – Zafar Mehmood was convicted in July, 2015, following trial on charges that he obtained patients by paying cash kickbacks to recruiters, who in turn paid cash to patients to induce them to sign up for home health care with Mehmood’s companies, and paid kickbacks to...