Markuetric Stringfellow Pleads Guilty to Medicaid Fraud Scheme

Markuetric Stringfellow, 37, of Powder Springs, Georgia, has pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges for orchestrating a multi-year scheme to defraud the North and South Carolina Medicaid programs. The plea, entered today before U.S. Magistrate Judge David S. Cayer in Charlotte, N.C., marks a critical blow against a sprawling fraud network that exploited vulnerable youth and gamed public healthcare funds for profit. U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray for the Western District of North Carolina and U.S. Attorney Peter M. McCoy for the District of South Carolina announced the outcome.

In North Carolina, Stringfellow operated as a partner in two shell entities—Everlasting Vitality, LLC (EV) and Do-It-4-The Hood Corporation (D4H)—which ran after-school programs in Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Rocky Mount. From January 7, 2016, through November 12, 2018, he and co-conspirators weaponized these programs, recruiting at-risk, Medicaid-eligible children under the guise of mentorship. Once enrolled, the children were forced to provide urine specimens—fuel for a black-market drug testing racket that relied on illegal kickbacks and fraudulent billing.

Court documents reveal Stringfellow paid recruiters to bring in minors solely to harvest their Medicaid data. Those personal identifiers—names, dates of birth, addresses, and Medicaid numbers—were handed to complicit labs. The labs then billed North Carolina Medicaid for drug tests that were either never conducted or medically unnecessary. Worse, many urine samples weren’t even from the named beneficiaries. Each fraudulent claim, once paid, triggered kickback payments to Stringfellow-controlled companies at a prearranged percentage of the state’s reimbursement.

The scam didn’t stop at the state line. Stringfellow also admitted guilt in a parallel scheme targeting South Carolina’s Medicaid program. As a franchise owner of Wrights Care Services LLC in Columbia, South Carolina—located at 1320 Main Street—he exploited his status as a state-approved provider of rehabilitative behavioral health services. Beginning around 2014, Wrights Care submitted false claims for behavioral mentoring services, many of which were never rendered, racking up reimbursements from the South Carolina system across multiple locations including Spartanburg, Pickens, Cheraw, and Conway.

These dual-state fraud operations highlight the audacity and reach of Stringfellow’s criminal enterprise. By embedding himself in youth outreach and behavioral health services, he turned taxpayer-funded programs into personal piggy banks. His plea covers conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, a charge that carries severe penalties, including years behind bars and millions in restitution—figures prosecutors are expected to finalize at sentencing.

The case, prosecuted jointly by federal authorities in both states, signals a tightening crackdown on Medicaid fraud rings that abuse social services infrastructure. Investigators say the takedown of Stringfellow’s network is part of a broader sweep targeting providers who exploit Medicaid’s trust. For now, the message is clear: when public funds meant for kids are funneled into criminal pockets, federal prosecutors will come hard and fast.