Some of the headlines call Moses deGraft-Johnson a “Tallahassee doctor,” but African media doesn’t pull punches and refers to him as a “Ghanaian doctor.”
Tallahassee doctor indicted for more than $23M in healthcare fraud
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) — A federal grand jury has indicted a Tallahassee doctor, accusing him of more than $23 million in healthcare fraud.
According to court documents, Moses deGraft-Johnson owned and operated the Heart and Vascular Institute of North Florida since September 2015. Kimberly Austin – his office manager – was also indicted.
Duel citizen Moses deGraft-Johnson benefited the US economy! NOT!
Federal prosecutors said in court Friday afternoon they believe there were more than 3,600 surgeries billed over the last five years, with 85 to 90% of them being fraudulent.
The 58 count indictment, which was unsealed Thursday, alleges deGraft-Johnson defrauded Medicare and Medicaid by billing them for dozens of procedures that he never performed.
A detailed list shows each of the claims was for more than $21,000. Federal prosecutors said in court that the amount of money that was improperly billed reached $23 million.
A later motion alleges deGraft-Johnson’s calendar showed he performed 14 surgeries in one day.
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The indictment contends deGraft-Johnson wasn’t even in the United States on some of those days, but rather was traveling to Madrid, London and other cities in Ghana and China.
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Culture of corruption? Since we have had so many fraud and crime stories perpetrated by Nigerians, I figured I would use this map to show you where both Ghana and Nigeria are located.
Federal prosecutors requested in court Friday that deGraft-Johnson be detained until his trial, saying the doctor poses a “serious risk of flight.”
Prosecutors contend deGraft-Johnson is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Ghana. They say he has “the motive, the means and the opportunity to flee from the United States to Ghana.”
According to prosecutors, he has two passports, both showing that he has dual citizenship for the United States and Ghana.
Unlimited hubris!
Prosecutors also contend that deGraft-Johnson has stated his ultimate long-term professional goal is “to be the President of Ghana.”
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Court documents indicate deGraft-Johnson deposited more than $32 million in health care funds into his bank account between November 2015 and August 2019. Prosecutors say that the majority of funds were transferred to other accounts.
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At one point, deGraft-Johnson told federal agents he had no cash that was not in a bank, but agents found $40,000 cash at one of his residences.
“This suggests that there may be other cash hoards in any of Defendant’s five other residences,” prosecutors wrote.
The doctor’s other residences are located in Miami, Manhattan, Hampton and Texas, prosecutors said in court.
Prosecutors also detailed lavish spending, including millions spent on Tiffany and Cartier jewelry, two Mercedes, and the recent leases of a Ferrari and a Lamborghini.
Honestly, I think Trump is making a big mistake not highlighting some of the major Medicare and Medicaid fraud prosecutions his administration is undertaking.
At every rally he should tell a story or two about how they caught some big crooks stealing from middle class Americans!
To be fair and balanced he could throw in a few American fraudsters along with the ‘new American’ ones!
Florida? Texas? Michigan? California? Which state has the most fraudulent medical practitioners?
Who knew taking care of the homeless could be so lucrative!
Longtime readers know that one of the reasons I keep doing what I do, writing blog posts like this as my charity work, is that I want taxpayers to understand that gobs of their hard-earned money (tax dollars!) is flowing to non-profit groups masquerading as charities.
The non-profit gets to pretend it is doing good work (sometimes under a cloak of religious zeal) and all the while those leading the fake charities are reaping rewards beyond your wildest imagination.
Refugee Resettlement Watch is loaded with information on this topic, but thanks to reader Brad for sending me this news from the New York Postabout the NYC homelessness ‘industry.’
How NYC’s homeless ‘charities’ cash in — ruthlessly
It was a good hour into his State of the City speech Thursday before Mayor Bill de Blasio addressed homelessness — though he didn’t say much about it. “It’s what we have to do,” he averred. “We have to end homelessness as we know it.”
You’d think this was de Blasio’s inaugural statement on the topic, as though he hasn’t been mayor for six years, presiding over record numbers of homeless people living in shelters, on the streets and in the subways. But de Blasio does in fact have a clear track record on homelessness; it’s just so dismal — so tainted by waste and scandal — that it’s no surprise he doesn’t want to dwell on it.
Spending has skyrocketed across the board since de Blasio took over City Hall, but no government expenditures have soared as fast as homeless services, which more than doubled since 2014, from $1 billion to $2.1 billion.
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Turns out that an increasing amount of the city’s homeless budget goes to service providers — the groups that run shelters and intake centers, conduct outreach and offer specialized treatment to people on the street. Yet given the enormous demand for shelter, numerous regulations on services and difficulties dealing with the city, it’s hard to find top-quality, scrupulously ethical providers.
At the same time, with more than a billion dollars a year flowing to this sector, the city can’t seem to ensure that standards are met, while well-positioned insiders — call them nonprofiteers — soak up public money.
Indeed, the system has been working great, if you are on the receiving end of the money stream. If you are a homeless or needy person, not so much.
After some horror stories about Children’s Community Services, opinion writer Seth Barron continued:
CCS isn’t the only bad actor in the city’s social-service industrial complex. Bronx-based powerhouse Acacia Networks — which has taken in close to a billion dollars in city funding since 2010 — garnered attention after a grisly murder in one of its Upper West Side shelters.
Scandal rocked Maria del Carmen Arroyo’s term in elected office. Here with Michael Bloomberg (right) who promotes the idea of immigrants adding to the US economy. I guess he means people like Ms. Arroyo!
This came on the heels of a revelation that Acacia executives had unreported ties to the security firm it hired to monitor its facilities and ensure the safety of the residents; insiders may also have proprietary ties to other vendors, too. Acacia “cluster sites,” which also house homeless families, have hundreds of outstanding violations.
Yet the organization is politically connected — former Bronx Council Member Maria del Carmen Arroyo left her elected post for a cool quarter-million salary as an Acacia VP, though that’s peanuts compared to the $800,000 stipend pulled down by CEO Raul Russi.
Is the word out all over the world for foreign docs to head to the Detroit area and set up scams to rip-off American taxpayers? It seems that way considering the number of cases of fraud I’ve reported from Michigan.
See this post about Opiod pushing docs in Michigan because they aren’t just ripping us off financially, but hurting Americans as well.
Metro Detroit physicians found guilty of defrauding Medicare, prescribing unnecessary opioids
Four Metro Detroit physicians were found guilty of health care fraud for their roles in a scheme to administer unnecessary back injections to patients in exchange for prescriptions of medically unnecessary opioids.
Officials said patients were required to get the injections in order to get the prescriptions. Some of the opioids were resold by drug dealers.
Spilios Pappas, 62, of Lucas County, Ohio, Joseph Betro, 59, of Oakland County, Michigan, Tariq Omar, 62, of Oakland County, Michigan, and Mohammed Zahoor, 53, of Oakland County, Michigan, were each found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, and one count of health care fraud.
“These physicians subjected patients to medically unnecessary injections to reap millions in fraudulent billings. Worse still, they incentivized those treatments by offering opioid prescriptions in sky-high dosages meant for the terminally ill,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Today’s verdict shows that the Department will root out physicians who let dollar signs rather than medical need drive their treatment of patients.”
Evidence at trial showed that from 2008 to 2016 Pappas, Betro, Omar and Zahoor worked at numerous medical clinics in Michigan and Ohio, which were operated under the name of the Tri-County Group (Tri-County) and owned by co-conspirator Mashiyat Rashid.
While working at Tri-County they engaged in a scheme to defraud Medicare of over $150 million by billing for medically unnecessary facet joint injections, unnecessary urinary drug screens, home health and more.
Officials said they offered prescriptions of oxycodone 30 mg to patients who were in pain, drug dealers, or opioid addicts. Those patients were forced to submit to unnecessary facet injections for the prescription.
The four defendants were all ranked in the top 25 doctors for dollars paid by Medicare for facet joint injections, even though they only worked a few hours a week. The defendants practice was described during trial as an assembly line, where the four defendants earned anywhere from $1,100 to $3,500 an hour for performing the injections.
Seniors: If you are seeing a doctor, especially for pain medications and you see something suspicious, report it to Medicare.gov. Check your Medicare statements carefully. One friend who was receiving pain meds told me that her doctor had billed Medicare for a much larger amount than she was prescribed. Maybe by mistake? But, best to report anything suspicious!
“We made an assumption that it was safe. These ladies, these widows are the most vulnerable part of society. I feel like they were sitting ducks.”
(Cliff Harris, former Dallas Cowboy and son-in-law of one of the latest victims to be identified)
This is an update of my posts that extend back to May of last year when Kenyan Billy Chemirmir was arrested and charged with the murders of 12 vulnerable senior women mostly living in upscale retirement facilities in and around Dallas.
The number of victims is now at 22, and could still rise higher.
***Update***Daniel Horowitz at Conservative Reviewdoes a deeper look into the fact that Chemirmir should never have been in the country and our sanctuary mentality is responsible for the deaths of these women just as much as Chemirmir is!
Most of the women were allegedly smothered with a pillow apparently for their jewelry and other valuables. The killing spree went on for years before the police unraveled the case and then only because one woman survived and was able to give a description of the African man who tried to kill her.
Charles Scudder, a reporter at the Dallas Morning Newshas been doing work that deserves a Pulitzer Prize for his dogged investigative work on a case that you know the mainstream media is failing to notice.
This story should be on national news! Where is CNN, MSNBC and Fox News?
New suits in Billy Chemirmir case identify two more alleged victims, offer new details
Two days before she died in March 2018, Miriam Nelson told staff at her Plano senior living complex that an intruder had been in her apartment.
Now, after police and prosecutors say she was smothered by serial murder suspect Billy Chemirmir, her family says that the complex where Nelson lived — Preston Place Retirement Community — should have done more to protect her.
Lawsuits filed in the 4th County Court at Law in Dallas on Tuesday by three families, including Nelson’s, detail what one of their attorneys, Trey Crawford, says is a pattern of “woefully deficient security measures” at Preston Place. The suits also provide greater insight into Chemirmir’s alleged actions as he visited North Texas senior living homes.
The suits list two new alleged victims who were not publicly linked to Chemirmir previously. One, who was not named in the suits, died Dec. 10, 2017, the documents state. The other is 93-year-old Mamie Dell Miya, who died Dec. 8, 2017.
Chemirmir has not been indicted in either death, but the suits include Plano police reports that state Miya’s death is a suspected capital murder case.
Miriam Nelson was the mother-in-law of former Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer Cliff Harris.
Chemirmir is accused of murdering nearly two dozen elderly people, mostly women, throughout North Texas. Seven of the alleged slayings occurred at Preston Place.
In all, that makes 22 deaths that have been publicly linked to Chemirmir. It could make him one of Texas’ most prolific serial killers.
Among the family members wanting improved security at Preston Place and other senior living facilities is former Dallas Cowboys safety and 2020 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Cliff Harris, whose mother-in-law was Miriam Nelson.
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According to the suits filed Tuesday, the daughter of another resident posted fliers warning residents about the intruder a few days after Nelson’s body was found. The flier noted that Preston Place had no black male maintenance employees and said that residents should call police if such a stranger came to their doors.
The suit claims that Preston Place management removed the fliers the next day.
“We made an assumption that it was safe,” Harris told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday. “These ladies, these widows are the most vulnerable part of society. I feel like they were sitting ducks.
There is much more, read it alland forward to your social media lists.
I repeat! This story should be on national news! Where is CNN, MSNBC and Fox News?
Please visit my December post where I told you about how some of the daughters of the Kenyan Killer’s victims have joined together to take action in hopes of avoiding the same dreadful fate that befell their mothers.
Update February 7th: Daniel Greenfield at Frontpage magazinehas a detailed account of how the alleged terrorist got into the US.
My first thought on seeing this story (thanks to reader ‘meanymom’) was—if he is a refugee, as some say, what happened to the “robust” vetting we have been promised.
Here is one version of the story from ABC-15 Arizona. I have to laugh because they make the man described in the Dept. of Justice press release from last Friday, sound like such a (“nonreligious”) sweetheart!
Accused Al-Qaeda terrorist, Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri, was a well-known driving instructor in Phoenix
PHOENIX — Members of the Phoenix Iraqi community say they are shocked to hear that a local driving instructor has been arrested for his alleged ties to Al-Qaeda.
According to his friend Algarawi, Ahmed wasn’t religious.
According to the United States Department of Justice, Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri was arrested in the Phoenix area Thursday. He is accused of murdering two Iraqi police officers in 2006.
The 42-year-old went by Ali Ahmed, and friends tell ABC15 he was well-liked in the community.
“Very nice person, we are very shocked with this news,” said Jabir Algarawi.
Algarawi said Ahmed came to Phoenix as a refugee in 2008. He said Ahmed told him he’d been shot several times in Iraq.
“He’d tell us he was against the extremists and he got shots multiple times in his body,” said Algarawi.
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According to federal documents, Ahmed and other members of the Al-Qaeda group allegedly shot and killed the first lieutenant in the Fallujah Police Directorate and a police officer in the Fallujah Police Directorate in June 2006 and October 2006. Documents show the Iraqi government has witnesses.
By the way, I’m getting first hand stories about refugees who entered the US fraudulently, or have witnessed such fraud, and I’m trying to figure out how to report it.
Honestly, I think Trump is making a big mistake not highlighting some of the major Medicare and Medicaid fraud prosecutions his administration is undertaking.
