Michigan Pharmacy Owner Sentenced to Prison for $6.9 Million Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Scheme
Yesterday the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Michigan announced that a licensed pharmacist from Dearborn Heights, Michigan, has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for her role in a $6.9 million scheme that defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan by submitting false claims for medications that were never actually dispensed, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Zeinab Makki, 61, was also ordered to pay $6.9 million in restitution and a forfeiture judgment of the same amount. Makki, who served as the pharmacist in charge at New Millennium Drugs and Western Wayne Pharmacy from 2001 to 2021, admitted to leading the scheme, which spanned the entire two decades she was there. She submitted claims for pharmaceuticals that her pharmacies never purchased, defrauding government and private insurers.
“Fraud by healthcare professionals will be aggressively pursued by our office,” said U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison. “We hope that prosecutions like this one will deter others from stealing money that is meant for those in genuine need.”
Special agents from the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) worked in tandem with Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services to investigate and bring the case to justice. “False medical claims divert much-needed funding away from patients who require life-saving services,” said Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Detroit Division. “Makki will serve her sentence for orchestrating and participating in this scheme.”
Makki’s sentence is the latest in a long line of cases targeting healthcare professionals who exploit federal programs for personal gain. Mario M. Pinto, Special Agent in Charge of the HHS Office of Inspector General’s Chicago region stated that, “Our agency remains dedicated to working with our law enforcement partners to identify and investigate fraud allegations.”
Moreover, Makki’s case is one of many reminders from the DOJ that criminals will face the consequences for abusing the trust placed in them as healthcare providers. While the financial restitution addresses the damage done to the insurance programs, her prison sentence addresses that her actions came with a heavy personal cost.
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