Baffour Opoku, Health Care Fraud, Virginia 2023

A Virginia Beach man and nine of his employees have been indicted on charges of defrauding the Virginia Medical Assistance Program, a federal grand jury announced Wednesday.

Baffour E. Opoku, 48, owner and operator of Progressive Counseling Services, LLC, and nine other current and former employees were charged with conspiracy to obtain reimbursement payments from the Virginia Medical Assistance Program by submitting false claims for mental health support services in 2011 and 2012.

According to the 105-count indictment, Opoku and his co-conspirators created fraudulent assessments of Progressive clients to obtain authorization to bill Medicaid for mental health support services. They then submitted false and fraudulent Medicaid reimbursement claims on behalf of mental health support services purportedly provided by the co-defendants.

The indictment alleges that these reimbursement claims were bogus because most of the counselors were unqualified to serve as mental health professionals, the counseling sessions never occurred, and progress notes used to document the sessions were fabricated.

Opoku also faces charges that he failed to report nearly $450,000 in taxable income to the IRS over two tax years and that he, along with Doretha Selby-Diggs and Corey Etheridge, submitted false documents to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security, with respect to a pending immigration matter.

The defendants, who are currently awaiting further proceedings, are Baffour E. Opoku, Doretha Selby-Diggs, Lisa Barrett, Barbara Bing Banks, Corey Etheridge, Jacqueline Harris, Verline Harris, Arlette Johnson, Alfreda Stallion, and Johnny Stallion.

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), IRS-Criminal Investigation, and the Department of Labor, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph L. Kosky and V. Kathleen Dougherty are prosecuting the case.

Criminal indictments are only charges and not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty.

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