Columbus Home Health Care Provider Sentenced for Fraud
COLUMBUS, Ohio – In a shocking case of deception, Ali Jama, 50, of Columbus, was sentenced today in federal court to 18 months in prison for running home health care fraud and tax fraud schemes. Jama pleaded guilty in September 2018 to one count of making false health care statements and one count of making false statements to the IRS.
According to court documents, Alpha Star Health Care Inc., a Medicare and Ohio Medicaid health care provider, was located on Westerville Road in Columbus. In 2015 and 2016, Jama improperly billed Medicare and Medicaid by allowing unqualified health care aides to provide care. The court documents revealed that Jama billed for services by disqualified individuals, whose criminal backgrounds prohibited them from providing direct care, and billed for services by untrained home health aides.
In a further act of deception, Jama provided false documents to his tax preparer, claiming $0 in taxable income for 2013 and 2014. In fact, his taxable income for those years was approximately $167,000 and $301,000, respectively. The IRS sustained a loss of approximately $126,000 in tax liability. Jama also provided false records to his tax preparer in terms of business expenses, inflating business expenses and reducing the company’s tax liability from nearly $680,000 to $81,000, resulting in an additional loss of nearly $185,000 to the IRS.
As part of his sentence, Jama is ordered to forfeit $300,000. He was also ordered to pay $392,000 in restitution to Medicaid and approximately $311,000 in restitution to the IRS. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley.
The case was a result of a joint investigation by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office Health Care Fraud Section, HHS Office of Inspector General, IRS Criminal Investigation, and FBI, as well as Assistant United States Attorneys Douglas W. Squires, Kenneth F. Affeldt, and Maritsa A. Flaherty.
“The public rightfully expects and trusts that those who provide health care services are competent and qualified,” said Lamont Pugh III, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General – Chicago Region. “The utilization of unqualified personnel coupled with the billing of federally funded health care programs for their services puts a patient’s health and safety at risk, and wastes taxpayer dollars.”
Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, and Ryan L. Korner, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, also commented on the case, stating that health care fraud affects every American and the joint investigation and prosecution was a deliberate and just effort to hold perpetrators accountable.
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Key Facts
- State: Ohio
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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