Eight Indicted in $68 Million Medicaid Fraud Scheme Involving Brooklyn Adult Day Cares

The Department of Justice in Washington on July 29, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Eight individuals were indicted for their alleged involvement in a $68 million scheme to defraud Medicaid, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Oct. 9.

The indictment, unsealed in Brooklyn this week, accuses the defendants of operating two social adult daycare centers and a home health care financial intermediary that paid kickbacks and bribes for services not rendered.

According to court documents, Zakia Khan, 53, and Ahsan Ijaz, 27, owned Happy Family Social Adult Day Care Center Inc. and Family Social Adult Day Care Center Inc., respectively, along with Responsible Care Staffing Inc., a financial intermediary for the New York Medicaid Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Services Program (CDPAP).

This program allows family members of Medicaid recipients to receive payment for assisting with daily activities.

The indictment alleges that starting around October 2017, marketers Elaine Antao, 45, Omneah Hamdi, 61, and Manal Wasef, 44, referred Medicaid recipients to the defendants’ businesses in exchange for kickbacks and bribes.

These payments were allegedly used to bill Medicaid for services that were never provided. Additionally, most Medicaid recipients enrolled at Happy Family and Family Social were paid illegal cash kickbacks and bribes without actually receiving the claimed services, and in some instances, recipients were outside the United States on the purported dates of service.

Ansir Abassi, 38, and Amran Hashmi, 53, are accused of managing the daycare centers and coordinating with the marketers. Seema Memon, 30, an employee of Happy Family, was also indicted for her role in the scheme.

To facilitate the kickback scheme, the defendants allegedly used business entities to launder the fraud proceeds and generate the cash used for payments.

“As alleged in the indictment, these defendants orchestrated a years-long scheme to defraud Medicaid of tens of millions of dollars for social adult day care and home care services for seniors that they did not provide,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri said in a press release. “The defendants allegedly paid cash bribes and kickbacks to recruiters and Medicaid recipients as part of a scheme to enrich themselves at the expense of vital programs for senior citizens.”

U.S. Attorney Breon Peace added, “Social adult day care and home health services are meant to help seniors, but as alleged, the defendants allegedly turned their businesses into a brazen cash grab of millions of dollars from the Medicaid program.”

The defendants face multiple charges, including conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and money laundering, with potential penalties ranging from five to twenty years in prison depending on the specific charges.

The Department of Justice’s Fraud Section has tackled health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, which has charged over 5,400 defendants and recovered more than $27 billion, since its inception in 2007, according to the announcement.