‘This case represents one of the most brazen and egregious cases of home health Medicaid fraud ever seen in this district [N Carolina].’
(US Attorney Robert J. Higdon Jr)
The UK Daily Mail, masters of such news, has the disgusting story replete with photos to make your head explode and a juicy title published hereon Wednesday.
Thanks to Judy for spotting it as I am just home from a happy family duty and am farther behind than usual with reading and writing.
‘Gluttonous’ Vegas couple ‘stole identities of dead people to defraud Medicaid of $13m’ which they blew on a private jet, luxury cars, designer clothes and vacations which they bragged about in tacky online videos
A Las Vegas couple have been accused of stealing $13million from Medicaid to fund a lavish lifestyle that included a private jet, luxury cars, jewelry and clothes.
Latisha and Timothy Harron bought expensive cars, real estate, a private jet and pricey vacations. They also bought gym equipment which clearly did not benefit Latisha, by ripping off US taxpayers!
Latisha and Timothy Mark Harron worked together to carry out a ‘massive fraud’ on the North Carolina Medicaid program, according to a press release from the Department of Justice issued on Wednesday.
The couple, who were arrested on Wednesday, allegedly did this by billing the government for what the Department described as ‘fictitious home services’.
They are accused of spending Medicaid money on a British Aerospace Bae 125-800Acosting private jet that cost $900,000, ‘thousands of dollars of gym equipment’ and properties in North Carolina.
‘Stealing taxpayer money from a health care program designed to care for the poor and disabled just to bankroll a private jet and other luxury products – as alleged in this case – is reprehensible,’ said Special Agent in Charge Derrick L. Jackson of the HHS Office of Inspector General.
Here is how they did it!
In 2012, Harron – who also goes by Latisha Reese Holt – moved to Maryland from North Carolina. There, she is said to have continued to bill NC Medicaid as though she was providing services to real North Carolina recipients.
The indictment then alleges that Latisha moved to Las Vegas in May 2017 to live with Timothy Harron. The two got married in 2018.
Timothy had a prior conviction which he concealed on NC Medicaid enrollment documents.
The couple then worked together to fraudulently bill the Medicaid program for more than $10 million between 2017 and 2019, according to the press release.
The DOJ said the couple searched through obituaries to find people in North Carolina who had recently died.
They then allegedly found out whether those people had a Medicaid ID number using an eligibility tool accessible only to Medicaid providers.
They then used it to bill Medicaid for ‘fictitious services’ it claimed to have provided before their deaths, the DOJ said.
Go hereto see the many photos and sickening details of their alleged theft.
It’s a good thing that the couple was so dumb to post photos of their largesse on line giving the Daily Mail such a titillating story.
If found guilty they could spend decades behind bars with surely lots and lots of gym time provided!
As I have said before, the Trump team should be broadcasting these successful busts far and wide as the 2020 election approaches.
The story is illustrated like this because there is apparently no photo of the scammer.
Nothing annoys me more than a story like this with no photo of the convicted ‘man’ named Ali Jama.
So I’m making an educated guess that since he lives in Columbus, Ohio***, the city with the second largest Somali population in America and that the name is a common Somali name, that he is Somali! Someone who knows Ali Jama can tell me I’m wrong. I will be waiting!
Here is a bit ofthe story (STL News), taken directly from the Dept. of Justicepress releaseon this fraudster.
OHIO NEWS: COLUMBUS, ALI JAMA, COLUMBUS HOME HEALTH CARE PROVIDER SENTENCED FOR FRAUD
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The co-owner of Alpha Star Health Care Inc. was sentenced today in federal court to 18 months in prison for running home health care fraud and tax fraud schemes.
Ali Jama, 50, of Columbus, pleaded guilty in September 2018 to one count of making false health care statements and one count of making false statements to the IRS.
[….]
According to court documents, Alpha, which was located on Westerville Road in Columbus, was a Medicare and Ohio Medicaid health care provider. In 2015 and 2016, Jama improperly billed Medicare and Medicaid by allowing unqualified health care aides to provide care. Jama billed for services by disqualified individuals, whose criminal backgrounds prohibited them from providing direct care; and billed for services by untrained home health aides.
Further, Jama provided false documents to his tax preparer, claiming $0 in taxable income for 2013 and 2014. In fact, his taxable income for those years was approximately $167,000 and $301,000 respectively. As a result, the IRS sustained a loss of approximately $126,000 in tax liability.
Continue readingfor more on his tax scams. Then check this out—a bunch of verbiage about how bad his crimes were and how “just” his sentence of 18 months is! Ohio Republican AG Yost: His sentence is “just.”
“The public rightfully expects and trusts that those who provide health care services are competent and qualified”, said Lamont Pugh III, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General – Chicago Region. “The utilization of unqualified personnel coupled with the billing of federally funded health care programs for their services puts a patient’s health and safety at risk, and wastes taxpayer dollars.The OIG along with our federal and state partners will continue to identify and hold accountable those who choose to engage in this type of criminal activity.”
[….] “This is a deliberate, coldhearted violation of the public trust,” Ohio Attorney General Yost said. “This joint investigation and prosecution was equally deliberate, and the sentence is just.”
What do you think? Is 18 months behind bars “just?” And, what are the odds he will be paying restitution amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars! Maybe “just” would be deportation back to his homeland!
***If you are new to Frauds and Crooks, see (in my Welcome post) that a film being produced about the joys of diversity in Columbus, Ohio helped inspire me to undertake this new project!
Even if you are a subscriber and read my posts on your phone or in e-mails, visit occasionally (click here) for more information. For example, see “Trending” in the right hand side bar? Those are the posts that are the most popular with readers in recent days.
So will AG Ellison go after frauds like this one? (This is Ellison’s twitter pic.)
As Minnesota’s Attorney General Lori Swanson turns the office over to Keith Ellison, the Grand Forks Heraldreports that charges have been brought against a Minnesota man who is “alleged to have defrauded the state medical assistance program out of more than $260,000.”
Swanson says Abdi Ali Gure of Bloomington submitted false claims for personal care assistance that were never delivered during a two year period—2013-2015.
Gure faces seven counts of theft.
A charging document alleges that Gure was an owner of Diversified Home Care, Inc., which was enrolled in the Medicaid program as a personal care provider organization. Kyle Nessen, an investigator with the office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, said Guresubmitted false claims to the state and ran various schemes through the organization. The investigator alleged that Gure received $260,897.52 to which he wasn’t entitled.
And that money benefitted Gure and his family, Nessen said, with Gure paying himself, his wife and his son more than $750,000 between 2011 and 2016.
Very interesting that I could only find mention of this story in small newspapers in Minnesota. If anyone finds the charging documents or even a press statement about it, please send me a link!
Putting Ann Coulter’s “secret decoder ring” to good use we can say for near certainty that Abdi Ali Gure is a Somali ‘new American.’ Refugee? Probably, because almost all Somalis in the US came here through the US State Department’s Refugee Admissions Program with Minnesota being the top resettlement location.
What do you think? Is 18 months behind bars “just?” And, what are the odds he will be paying restitution amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars! Maybe “just” would be deportation back to his homeland!
