Detroit-Area Home Health Owner Sentenced to 72 Months in Prison for Medicare Fraud Scheme
Zahir Yousafzai, 44, the owner of a home health agency involved in a $13.8 million Medicare fraud scheme, was sentenced to serve 72 months in prison. In addition to his prison term, Yousafzai was sentenced to three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $4,131,135 in restitution, jointly and severally with his co-defendants.
The scheme, which took place between July 2008 and September 2011, involved Yousafzai and his co-conspirators acquiring beneficial ownership and control over two home health companies, First Care Home Health Care LLC and Moonlite Home Care Inc. Yousafzai also assisted in the operation of two additional home health care agencies, Physicians Choice Home Health Care LLC and Quantum Home Care Inc., owned by co-conspirators.
According to court records, Yousafzai, a physical therapist assistant, paid and directed the payment of various medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, physical therapists and physical therapist assistants, to create fictitious patient files to document purported home health services that were never provided. Additionally, Yousafzai paid and directed the payment of kickbacks to recruiters who obtained beneficiaries’ Medicare information that he used to submit claims for home health care that was never provided.
The scheme involved beneficiaries sometimes pre-signing forms that were later falsified to indicate they received home health services, when they did not. In other instances, the beneficiaries’ signatures were forged. Yousafzai signed patient files falsely stating that physical therapy services were provided.
Yousafzai also incorporated a shell company known as A-1 Nursing and Rehab Inc., through which he laundered the proceeds of the healthcare fraud. Between July 2008 and September 2011, Medicare paid approximately $13.8 million in fraudulent home health claims submitted by the four home health agencies associated with Yousafzai. Of this amount, Medicare paid more than $4 million to First Care and Moonlite, the companies that Yousafzai owned in whole or in part.
This case was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG and was brought by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, a joint effort of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan and the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case was prosecuted by Assistant Chief Catherine K. Dick and Trial Attorney Matthew C. Thuesen of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
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