Medical Equipment Suppliers Convicted of Health Care Fraud | OPA

A federal jury convicted two adult men these days for engaging in a plan to defraud Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed treatment strategies of in excess of $3.8 million.

According to court docket documents and proof presented at demo, Ikechukwu Udeokoro, 47, of North Bergen, New Jersey, owned Meik Clinical Gear and Supply (Meik), a durable healthcare gear supplier that was situated in the Bronx, New York. Ayodeji Fasonu, 56, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, was Meik’s manager. Through Meik, Udeokoro and Fasonu billed Medicare Edge and Medicaid managed care strategies for hundreds of costly affected individual guidance methods that have been under no circumstances provided to clients or caregivers. These help units involved huge products that ended up created to support with lifting motionless people and sufferers in nursing properties. In fact, Udeokoro and Fasonu furnished individuals with recliner chairs that experienced a seat elevate characteristic. Amongst December 2010 and February 2014, Udeokoro and Fasonu fraudulently billed Medicare Gain and Medicaid managed care options a lot more than $3.8 million and ended up paid out around $2.4 million.

Udeokoro and Fasonu ended up both of those convicted of health care fraud. They are scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 14 and Aug. 16, respectively, and each individual faces a maximum penalty of 10 yrs in jail. A federal district court docket judge will identify any sentence just after taking into consideration the U.S. Sentencing Recommendations and other statutory variables.

Assistant Attorney Standard Kenneth A. Well mannered, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division U.S. Legal professional Breon Peace for the Jap District of New York Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division Assistant Director in Charge Michael J. Driscoll of the FBI New York Subject Business office and Special Agent in Charge Scott J. Lampert of the Department of Wellness and Human Providers Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Business office of Investigations designed the announcement.

The FBI and HHS-OIG investigated the situation.

Demo Lawyers Andrew Estes and Patrick J. Campbell of the Legal Division’s Fraud Part are prosecuting the circumstance.

The Fraud Segment prospects the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health and fitness treatment fraud by means of the Overall health Care Fraud Strike Drive Application. Considering that March 2007, this plan, comprised of 15 strike forces running in 24 federal districts, has billed much more than 4,200 defendants who collectively have billed the Medicare program for extra than $19 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Products and services, doing the job in conjunction with the Business office of the Inspector Common for the Division of Health and fitness and Human Services, are getting actions to hold vendors accountable for their involvement in health and fitness treatment fraud strategies. Extra details can be found at https://www.justice.gov/felony-fraud/wellness-treatment-fraud-unit.