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Top-10 Financial Fraud Prison Sentences for 2017

Posted  January 17, 2018

Here is our look-back at the Top-10 prison sentences in 2017 for violating the False Claims Act or engaging in other financial frauds.  Click here for a chronological listing of all DOJ fraud resolutions for 2017.

  1. Marie Neba — The owner and director of nursing of Houston home health agency Fiango Home Healthcare Inc. was sentenced to 900 months in prison for her role in a $13 million Medicare fraud scheme involving the payment of illegal kickbacks to patient recruiters for referring Medicare beneficiaries to Fiango for home health services. DOJ
  2. Godwin Oriakhi — The owner of five Houston-area home health agencies was sentenced to 480 months in prison for conspiring to defraud Medicare and the State of Texas’ Medicaid-funded Home and Community-Based Service (HCBS) and Primary Home Care (PHC) Programs of more than $17 million. DOJ
  3. Alfred Bradley Adkins — The former Kentucky clinical psychologist was sentenced to 300 months in prison for his role in a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $550 million in federal disability payments from the Social Security Administration for thousands of claimants. DOJ
  4. Michael Baker — The former CEO of Texas-based medical device company ArthroCare Corporationwas sentenced to 240 months in prison and to pay roughly $15 million in fines and forfeitures for his role in orchestrating a fraud scheme that resulted in shareholder losses of over $750 million. DOJ
  5. Aria O. Sabit — The Detroit-area neurosurgeon who owned Michigan Brain and Spine Physicians Group was sentenced to 235 months in prison for his role in a $2.8 million health care fraud scheme in which he caused serious bodily harm to patients by performing unnecessary invasive spinal surgeries. Whistleblower Insider
  6. Johnny Trotter — The Detroit-area doctor was sentenced to 180 months in prison and to pay roughly $9 million in restitution for his role in a $26 million health care fraud scheme that involved billing Medicare for nerve block injections that were never provided and efforts to circumvent Medicare’s investigation of the fraudulent scheme. DOJ
  7. Rodney Hesson — The owner of Nursing Home Psychological Servicesand Psychological Care Services was sentenced to 180 months in prison and to pay $13.8 million in restitution for his involvement in a $25.2 million Medicare fraud scheme involving billing Medicare for psychological testing services that nursing home residents did not need or in some instances did not receive.  DOJ
  8. Milka Alfaro — Ms. Alfaro and her mother Mildrey Gonzalez, co-owners of seven home health agencies in the Miami area, were sentenced to 151 and 135 months in prison, respectively, and to pay roughly $22.9 million in restitution for their roles in a $20 million Medicare fraud conspiracy that involved paying illegal health care kickbacks to patient recruiters and medical professionals.  DOJ
  9. Raciel Leon — The manager of Mercy Home Care Inc.and a billing employee for D&D&D Home Health Care Inc., two Miami-area home health agencies, was sentenced to a 126 month prison term for his role in a $2.5 million Medicare fraud scheme.  The evidence at trial showed that Leon and his co-conspirators used the companies to submit false claims to Medicare based on services not medically necessary, not actually provided, and for patients procured through the payment of illegal kickbacks to doctors and patient recruiters.  DOJ
  10. Sreedhar Potarazu — The ophthalmic surgeon who founded VitalSpring Technologies Inc. was sentenced to 120 months in prison for defrauding his former company’s shareholders and for failing to pay employment taxes.  He was also ordered to pay roughly $50 million in restitution to the shareholders and $7.7 million to the IRS, and forfeiture of several homes, vehicles, and bank accounts. DOJ

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Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, Top 10,


1 Reply to Top-10 Financial Fraud Prison Sentences for 2017

  • Julian Striegel says:

    Two months ago a binary options broker cheated me out of €5000. When I asked to withdraw the funds, I never heard from the broker who was very helpful when I started. I would like to get my money back from this fraudster. Looking for a service to help me to recover my money! Did you ever get scammed as well?

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