Bolademi Adetola, Medicare Fraud, California 2013

A Los Angeles medical supply company owner has been sentenced to five years in prison for her role in a massive Medicare fraud scheme.

Bolademi Adetola, 47, of Harbor City, California, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and 12 counts of healthcare fraud in March 2013.

The scheme, which ran from January 2005 to October 2009, involved Adetola’s company, Latay Medical Services, a durable medical equipment (DME) supply company based in Gardena, California.

According to prosecutors, Adetola paid cash kickbacks to a co-conspirator physician for fraudulent prescriptions for DME, such as power wheelchairs and hospital beds.

The co-conspirator physician testified that Adetola paid him cash kickbacks for every fraudulent prescription he wrote for the DME, which she then used to bill Medicare.

Several Medicare beneficiaries also testified that they were lured to medical clinics with the promise of a free recliner sofa, only to receive power wheelchairs that they did not need and did not want.

In addition, the trial evidence showed that Adetola billed Medicare for DME supposedly provided and delivered to Medicare beneficiaries who were deceased at the time of service.

As a result of this fraud scheme, Adetola submitted and caused the submission of over $8.4 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, and received over $4.5 million on those claims.

U.S. District Judge George H. Wu sentenced Adetola to serve five years in prison, with three years of supervised release, and ordered her to pay $4,555,198 in restitution.

The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, a joint initiative between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG).

The Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged over 1,500 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $5 billion since its inception in March 2007.

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