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...

August 29, 2014

Austin, Texas-based Omni Surgical L.P. (doing business as Spine 360), a manufacturer of devices used in spinal surgery, and Dr. Jamie Gottlieb, an Indiana spinal surgeon, agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle allegations that Spine 360 paid illegal kickbacks to Gottlieb to induce him to use the company’s products in violation of the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute. According to the government, Spine 360 made payments to an...

August 20, 2014

Muhammad Aamir, owner of the three Michigan home health agencies Prestige Home Health Services, Platinum Home Health Services, and Empirical Home Health Care, pleaded guilty for his role in a $22 million home health care fraud scheme. Specifically, Aamir and his co-conspirators billed Medicare for home health care services that were not actually rendered, not medically necessary, and procured through paying illegal kickbacks. DOJ

August 7, 2014

Gary Lang, a CEO of an Atlanta-area hospital and Tracey Cota, the co-owner and chief operating officer of the Atlanta-based medical clinic chain Hispanic Medical Management, pleaded guilty for paying illegal kickbacks to clinics in exchange for Medicaid patient referrals. According to the government, Cota conspired with Lang and other executives from Atlanta-area hospitals and from a hospital on Hilton Head Island to pay kickbacks to Hispanic Medical Management for...