November 5, 2014

Elsa Ruiz, the owner and administrator of the Miami home health care companies Professional Home Care Solutions Inc. and LTC Professional Consultants Inc., was sentenced to serve 80 months in prison and pay $45M in restitution for her participation in a $74M Medicare fraud scheme. According to admissions during her plea hearing, Ruiz and her co-conspirators operated LTC and Professional Home Care for the purpose of billing the Medicare program...

October 29, 2014

Medical device maker EBI LLC, doing business as Biomet Spine and Bone Healing Technologies and Biomet Inc., agreed to pay $6M to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to induce use of its bone growth stimulators, which are used to repair fractures that are slow to heal. Specifically, the government alleged that from 2001 to 2008 EBI paid staff at doctors’ offices (through personal service...

October 22, 2014

Tayyab Aziz, founder of three Detroit-area home health agencies Prestige Home Health Services Inc., Royal Home Health Care Inc., and Platinum Home Health Services Inc. pleaded guilty for his role in a $22M home health care fraud scheme. Specifically, Aziz admitted he and his co-conspirators submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare for services that were medically unnecessary or never performed. They also submitted claims for services purportedly provided to Medicare beneficiaries...

October 8, 2014

Usman Butt, a former owner and manager of two Detroit-area home health care agencies, Home Health Services Inc. and Royal Home Health Care Inc., pleaded guilty for his role in a $22 million Medicare fraud conspiracy. Specifically, Butt admitted that beginning in 2008 and continuing through January 2013, he conspired with others to bill Medicare for home health care services that were not actually rendered, not medically necessary, and procured...

October 1, 2014

Robert Lustyik, a 24-year veteran of the FBI, and his childhood friend Johannes Thaler, pleaded guilty to participating in a bribery scheme to obstruct a grand jury investigation in exchange for the promise of cash and multimillion dollar business contracts offered by a businessman under investigation. Specifically, Lustyik and Thaler admitted that from October 2011 to September 2012, Lustyik, while employed as an FBI counterintelligence special agent, and Thaler conspired...

October 1, 2014

A federal jury in Detroit convicted Felicar Williams, the operator of Haven Adult Day Care Center LLC, and Abdul Malik Al-Jumail and his daughter Jamella Al-Jumail, owners of a network of home health care companies, for their participation in a $29 million Medicare fraud scheme. According to evidence presented at trial, at Williams’s direction, Haven billed Medicare for sophisticated mental health services purportedly provided by other, unlicensed staff members. And...

September 26, 2014

Detroit-area physician Dr. Vicha Janviriya pleaded guilty for making fraudulent referrals for home health care in a $1.3 million Medicare fraud scheme. He admitted that he falsified medical documentation which would be used to support false claims to Medicare for services that were never rendered or not medically necessary, or where the Medicare beneficiary referrals were obtained through the payment of kickbacks. DOJ

September 25, 2014

Felix Maduka, owner of a home health services company Joystar Home Health Services, was sentenced to serve five years in prison for his leading role in a conspiracy to structure over $1.8 million in bank withdrawals to conceal a $4.5 million healthcare fraud scheme. On April 16, 2014, Maduka pleaded guilty to the charges along with his wife, Joystar’s Director of Nursing Stella Maduka. They engaged in this structuring scheme...

September 18, 2014

Three patient recruiters were sentenced to prison for their participation in a $20 million health care fraud scheme involving defunct home health care company Trust Care Health Services. Estrella Perez was sentenced to 37 months and ordered to pay $1.2 million; Solchys Perez was sentenced to 30 months and ordered to pay $746,000; and Abigail Aguila was sentenced to 30 months and ordered to pay $491,000. According to court documents,...

September 8, 2014

Cruz Sonia Collado, the owner and operator of now defunct home health care company Nestor’s Health Services was sentenced to 75 months in prison and ordered to pay $6.5 million in restitution for her participation in a $6.5 million Medicare fraud scheme under which she paid kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters in return for their providing patients to Nestor’s for home health care and therapy services that were medically...