Detroit-area resident Muhammad “Sib” Ahmad pleaded guilty for his role in
organizing a more than $13 million home health care fraud and money laundering
scheme, announced the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS).
Ahmad, 33, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen of
the Eastern District of Michigan to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of
money laundering.
According to court documents, beginning in July 2008, Ahmad and his
co-conspirators acquired ownership and control of three Detroit-area home health
agencies: Physicians Choice Home Health Care LLC, First Care Home Health Care
LLC, and Quantum Home Care Inc. Ahmad admitted that these home health agencies
billed Medicare for visits that never occurred. Between July 2008 and September
2011, Ahmad and his co-conspirators submitted or caused the submission of more
than $13 million in fraudulent home health claims to the Medicare program by
Physicians Choice, First Care, Quantum, and a fourth home health agency owned by
co-conspirators, Moonlite Home Care Inc. Medicare paid more than $12 million to
the companies that Ahmad beneficially
owned in whole or in part.
Ahmad admitted that he and his co-conspirators directed the payment of
non-licensed individuals who represented themselves as doctors to Medicare
beneficiaries. In addition, Ahmad admitted to paying and directing various
medical professionals, including nurses, physical therapists, and physical
therapy assistants, to create fictitious patient files to document purported
home health services that were never rendered.
Ahmad also admitted that he and his co-conspirators paid and directed the
payment of kickbacks to beneficiary recruiters who obtained Medicare
beneficiaries’ information needed to bill Medicare for home health services,
including physical therapy and skilled nursing, which were never rendered. The
Medicare beneficiaries sometimes pre-signed forms and visit sheets that were
later falsified to indicate that they received home health services that they
had never received. Other times, the Medicare beneficiaries’ signatures were
forged on forms and visit sheets to indicate that they received home health
services that, in fact, were never provided.
Additionally, Ahmad admitted that he incorporated a shell company known as Century Home Care for the
purpose of laundering the proceeds of the health care fraud scheme.
Today’s guilty plea was announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A.
Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney for the
Eastern District of Michigan Barbara L. McQuade; Special Agent in Charge Andrew
G. Arena of the FBI’s Detroit Field
Office; and Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh, III of the HHS Office of
Inspector General’s (OIG) Chicago Regional Office.
This case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Catherine K. Dick of the Criminal
Division’s Fraud Section. It was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG and was brought as part of
the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud
Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Since their inception in March 2007, Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations
in nine locations have charged more than 1,330 defendants who collectively have
falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $4 billion. In addition, the
HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the
HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence
of fraudulent providers.
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