Group Home Owners Sentenced in $1 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

Gunnar Larson g at xny.io
Thu Dec 1 08:38:52 PST 2022


https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/group-home-owners-sentenced-1-million-medicare-fraud-scheme


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Group Home Owners Sentenced in $1 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme
A Texas married couple was sentenced today for a $1 million Medicare fraud
scheme, including violations of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.

Lindell King, 53, of Missouri City, was sentenced to 60 months in prison.
Ynedra Diggs, 45, also of Missouri City, was sentenced to 70 months in
prison. King and Diggs were also ordered to pay $537,992.55 in restitution.

On April 4, King and Diggs were convicted after trial in the Southern
District of Texas of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and
receive health care kickbacks, and multiple substantive violations of the
Anti-Kickback Statute.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, both Diggs
and King were patient recruiters who owned and operated group homes in
which Medicare beneficiaries lived. In exchange for sending their group
home residents to the Behavioral Medicine of Houston (BMH), a community
mental health center that purported to provide partial hospitalization
services, BMH paid Diggs, King, and other patient recruiters illegal
kickbacks in cash and by check, often concealed as payment for
“transportation” or other sham services. During the course of the
conspiracy, BMH fraudulently billed approximately $1 million to Medicare in
claims related to patients it received in exchange for the kickbacks paid
to Diggs and King.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice
Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery for the
Southern District of Texas; Acting Special Agent in Charge Jason Meadows of
the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s
(HHS-OIG) Dallas Region; Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s
Criminal Investigative Division; Special Agent in Charge James H. Smith III
of the FBI Houston Field Office; and Chief William Marlowe of the Texas
Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) made the announcement.

The HHS-OIG, FBI, and MFCU investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Monica Cooper and Acting Assistant Chief Brynn Schiess of
the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health
care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March
2007, this program, comprised of 15 strike forces operating in 24 federal
districts, has charged more than 4,200 defendants who collectively have
billed the Medicare program for more than $19 billion. In addition, the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the
Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human
Services, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their
involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at
https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.
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