Three indicted for $634,000 health care fraud involving two Toledo companies |
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Topics: Blue Line Express Taxi and Medical Transport, Metro Medical Transportation
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U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Ohio
21 June 2016
Three people were indicted in federal court for their roles in a $634,000 health care fraud scheme involving two ambulette companies they operated and fraudulent billing of the Ohio Medicaid program, said Carole S. Rendon, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
Named in the six-count indictment are: Yahya Sayid Ibrahim, 34, of Toledo; Abdul Haji Faqi, 40, of Canal Winchester, and Hussein Ahmed, 45, of Toledo.
The indictment charges Ibrahim, Faqi and Ahmed with a conspiracy to commit health care fraud through the operation of two Toledo companies, Blue Line Express Taxi and Medical Transport and Metro Medical Transportation, LLC. The indictment also charges the defendants with five substantive counts of health care fraud related to Medicaid benefits for conduct that took place between 2009 and 2016.
The defendants transported – and billed for -- Medicaid recipients that did not need wheelchairs, understanding Medicaid only provided reimbursement for recipients who required the assistance of wheelchairs and were actually transported in wheelchairs. They also billed Medicaid for ambulette transportation services (vans with lifts for wheelchairs) when they were actually transporting people in vehicles that were not ambulettes, such as Toyota Camrys, according to the indictment
If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after reviewing factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.
The investigating agencies in this case are Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Ohio Attorney General’s Medicaid Frauds Control Unit and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Toledo. The case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorneys Noah P. Hood and Gene Crawford.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.