WASHINGTON—A Houston-area nurse was
sentenced today in Houston for her participation in a $5.2 million Medicare
fraud scheme, announced the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Ezinne Ubani, the former director of
nursing at Family Healthcare Group, a Houston home health care company, was
sentenced by U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas in the Southern District of Texas
to 97 months in prison, followed by three years’ supervised release. Ubani was
ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution jointly and severally with her
co-defendants. Ubani was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health
care fraud and two counts of making false statements following a May 2011
trial.
According to the evidence presented at
trial and in court documents, Family Healthcare Group purported to provide
skilled nursing to Medicare beneficiaries. Family Healthcare Group paid
co-conspirators to recruit Medicare beneficiaries for the purpose of filing
claims with Medicare for skilled nursing that was medically unnecessary and/or
not provided. The evidence showed that Ezinne Ubani falsified documents to
support the fraudulent payments. After the Medicare beneficiaries were
recruited, other co-conspirators fraudulently signed plans of care stating that
the beneficiaries needed home health care, when, in fact, they knew the
beneficiaries were not home-bound and not in need of skilled nursing.
Ubani is the seventh defendant sentenced
in connection with this scheme. Three other defendants, Clifford Ubani,
Princewill Njoku, and Cynthia Garza Williams, await sentencing in the Southern
District of Texas.
The sentence was announced by Assistant
Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division;
U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas; Special Agent
in Charge Stephen L. Morris of the FBI’s Houston Field Office; Special Agent in
Charge Mike Fields of the Dallas Regional Office of HHS’s Office of the
Inspector General (HHS-OIG); and the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud
Control Unit (OAG-MFCU).
This case is being prosecuted by Trial
Attorney Charles D. Reed and Deputy Chief Sam S. Sheldon of the Fraud Section
in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. The case was investigated by the
FBI, HHS-OIG, Texas OAG-MFCU, and the Federal Railroad Retirement Board-Office
of Inspector General. The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike
Force, supervised by the Fraud Section in the Justice Department’s Criminal
Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.
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.
To learn more about the Health Care
Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), go to
www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.
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