Federal officials announced on Thursday new indictments against 14 defendants accused of Medicaid and COVID-19 relief fraud in Ohio. 

This comes after investigative reporter Luke Rosiak released a deep dive investigation last month into Somali fraud in Ohio, where he revealed the vast Somali Medicaid fraud ring in Columbus, Ohio, which is estimated to have stolen over a billion federal tax dollars.

Some of Rosiak’s findings include:

A politician who founded an $11 million home health care company that he appeared to run part-time — without even mentioning it in his political biography — who funded his campaign with donations from other home health care owners.

A woman who reinvented her janitorial LLC as a “health” provider, then billed Medicaid nearly $100,000 the first month.

A landlord who bought airplanes after renting space to hundreds of home health care companies that billed Medicaid a quarter of a billion dollars.

A million-dollar Medicaid business owned by a couple with repeated fraud, violence, and theft convictions.

A man who went to prison for Medicaid fraud but told the government he was too broke to pay restitution, while his neighbors and associates preside over a poverty-program empire.

An accountant who lost his license for stealing public funds, then opened a $7 million home health company using the address of a convicted money launderer’s teenage son.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on Thursday that a total of 14 defendants have been charged today and over the past week for their involvement in “fraud schemes targeting over $50 million here in Ohio.”

This includes a 32-count indictment against two state employees and two other co-conspirators for $30 million in fraudulent therapeutic behavioral services, he said.

WATCH:

Blanche: Today, we unsealed a 32-count indictment against two state employees and two other co-conspirators for allegedly billing $30 million to the government for therapeutic behavioral services that were never provided. We’ve also unsealed an indictment charging four defendants in a scheme to defraud a COVID program. Again, these programs, as we all know, were meant to benefit small businesses and individuals struggling because of the pandemic.

In total, between our state and federal partners, today we’re announcing charges that were either unsealed today or over the past week against 14 defendants allegedly involved in fraud schemes targeting over $50 million here in Ohio, and again, these numbers are staggering, but just the tip of the iceberg, both here in Ohio and nationwide.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz highlighted the staggering amount of home health care expenditures concentrated in Franklin County, Ohio. “A third of all of the money spent on home health care in the entire great state of Ohio is generated here,” he said, noting that nearly 300 home health care facilities are located in a several-block stretch of road. Oz further described the area as a “mecca for Somali populations” and a “hub for Nepalese and Bhutanese populations.”

One woman, he said, is in jail after being accused and convicted for billing health care expenses for people who were dead! “She’s in jail, and she went to jail because she was accused and convicted of taking billing practices to a level we had not seen before,” Oz said. “Billing for dead people is a bad look in court, and it showed at her conviction when she was accused and appropriately taken out for doing things that we find reprehensible.”

WATCH:

Oz: Unfortunately, this area around Columbus is responsible in Franklin County for 1/3 of all of the one and a half billion dollars spent on home health care in Ohio. Think about that. A third of all of the money spent on home health care in the entire great state of Ohio is generated here. That’s three times what you would expect. There’s a road very close to where we are– 288 home health care facilities in that several block area on that one road.

Again, it defies belief. Some of these buildings were vacant; you wouldn’t put anybody up in those buildings, not certainly, the place that would house home health care. Now, this is a mecca for Somali populations, it’s a hub for Nepalese and Bhutanese populations. These are insular groups, but we are naive to think that practices that were felt to be commonplace in other parts of the world wouldn’t come to this great country if we didn’t pay attention to some of the program integrity issues, which were ignored en masse with the prior administration

Oz further outlined actions that the Trump Administration is taking to crack down on the fraud, including the suspension of 49 “high-risk” Ohio home healthcare providers, a 6-month moratorium for new home health care providers and hospice care providers, a state-specific Medicaid fraud room, and giving states information on high-risk providers

“No more champagne on private jets for these people, no more new cars, no more luxury endeavors, and vacations. It’s done. We’re coming after you, wherever you are,” he said.

WATCH:

In the schemes announced today, law enforcement seized nearly half a million dollars from bank accounts and nearly $1 million in luxury vehicles.

Per Fox:

Authorities allege the services were medically unnecessary or were not provided as represented. Prosecutors further claim that after one company lost its credentialing with the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the defendants continued submitting claims through another entity.

As part of the investigation, authorities seized three bank accounts containing roughly $469,000 and 14 vehicles valued at approximately $800,000, including six Mercedes-Benz vehicles, a Bentley, a BMW, a Jaguar, a Maserati, two Land Rovers, a GMC and a McLaren.

The Justice Department also announced on Thursday that its National Fraud Enforcement Division’s Health Care Fraud Unit secured six convictions in the last three weeks for fraudsters who stole over $1.1 billion.

Trial convictions were secured in the following cases:

United States v. Blackman Trial Conviction (Industrial-Scale Telehealth Platform Fraud, $1 Billion):

United States v. Mailyan Trial Conviction (Proactive Data Driven Lead for Botox Billing Fraud: Obstruction, Fabricated Records, $45 Million):

United States v. Scott Trial Conviction (Home Health Kickback Network: Hospital Nurse Bribed via CashApp, Stolen Patient Identities):

United States v. Brown-Arkah Trial Conviction (Substance Abuse Clinic as Narcotics Hub: Narcotics Diversion, Undercover Video, $52 Million):

United States v. Popovych Trial Conviction (Physical Therapy Clinic Kickback Ring: Ambulette Drivers, Coded Texts, Falsified Records)

United States v. Marks Trial Conviction (Nurse Prescribed Nearly 1 Million Highly Addictive Opioid Pills to Tennessee Community)

Jordan Conradson Jordan Conradson, formerly TGP’s Arizona correspondent, is currently on assignment in Washington DC. Jordan has played a critical role in exposing fraud and corruption in Arizona's elections and elected officials. His reporting on election crimes in Maricopa County led to the resignation of one election official, and he was later banned from the Maricopa County press room for his courage in pursuit of the truth. TGP and Jordan finally gained access after suing Maricopa County, America's fourth largest county, and winning at the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Conradson looks forward to bringing his aggressive style of journalism to the Swamp.

You can email Jordan Conradson here, and read more of Jordan Conradson's articles here.

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