Co-Owner of Houston-Area Home Health Care Agency Sentenced to 108 Months in Prison for Role in $5 Million Medicare Fraud

To contact us Click HERE

WASHINGTON—The former co-owner of aHouston-area home health care company was sentenced today in Houston to 108months in prison for his participation in a $5.2 million Medicare fraud scheme,announced the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department of Health andHuman Services (HHS).
Clifford Ubani, a former co-owner andchief financial officer at Family Healthcare Group, was sentenced by U.S.District Judge Nancy Atlas in the Southern District of Texas. In addition tohis prison term, Ubani was sentenced to three years of supervised release andwas ordered to pay $4.2 million in restitution jointly and severally with hisco-defendants. In January 2011, Ubani pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracyto commit health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay illegal kickbacksto patient recruiters, and 16 counts of paying such illegal kickbacks.
According to court documents and otherevidence presented to the court, Family Healthcare Group, a Houston home healthcare company, purported to provide skilled nursing to Medicare beneficiaries.According to court documents and other evidence, Clifford Ubani paidco-conspirators to recruit Medicare beneficiaries for the purpose of FamilyHealthcare Group filing claims with Medicare for skilled nursing that wasmedically unnecessary or not provided. Ubani’s co-conspirators would thenfalsify documents to support the fraudulent payments from Medicare. Ubani alsopaid co-conspirators to sign fraudulent plans of care stating that thebeneficiaries needed home health care when, in fact, they knew thebeneficiaries were not home-bound and not in need of skilled nursing.
Ubani is the eighth defendant sentencedin connection with this scheme. Two other defendants, co-owner Princewill Njokuand patient recruiter Cynthia Garza Williams, await sentencing.
The sentences were announced byAssistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s CriminalDivision; 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’sOffice of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG); and the Texas Attorney General’sMedicaid Fraud Control Unit (OAG-MFCU).
This case is being prosecuted by TrialAttorney Charles D. Reed and Deputy Chief Sam S. Sheldon of the CriminalDivision’s Fraud Section. The case was investigated by the FBI, HHS-OIG, TexasOAG-MFCU, and the Federal Railroad Retirement Board-OIG and was brought as partof the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s FraudSection 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 than1,330 defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program formore than $4 billion. In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare and MedicaidServices, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increaseaccountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.
To learn more about the Health CareFraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), go towww.stopmedicarefraud.gov.