Imadeldin Awad Khair, Health Care Fraud, New Jersey 2023
New Jersey Man Charged with Health Care Fraud
NEWARK, N.J. – A Passaic County, New Jersey, man was charged today with operating a lucrative ambulance company that received funds from Medicare and Medicaid, despite being barred from doing such business because of a prior health care fraud conviction, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Imadeldin Awad Khair, a/k/a “Nadr Khair,” 55, of Clifton, New Jersey, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Newark. The 17-count indictment charges Khair with one count of health care fraud, one count of obstruction of a federal audit, eleven counts of tax evasion and four counts of money laundering.
Khair was previously convicted of a New Jersey state health care charge in 2003 and was excluded from participating in any capacity in Medicare, Medicaid, or other federal health care program for a minimum of 11 years. Despite this, Khair has since 2005 been an operator and a de facto owner of K & S Invalid Coach, a licensed ambulance and wheelchair transportation service operating out of Clifton.
Nearly all of K & S’s patients were Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries requiring regular transportation to dialysis treatment. Since September 2011, Medicare has paid more than $6.5 million in claims submitted by K & S. Since January 2010, N.J. Medicaid has paid more than $1 million in claims submitted by K & S. In 2014 alone, K & S received more than $2.6 million from Medicare and N.J. Medicaid and was in the top 3 percent of the more than 400 ambulance transport providers in the state of New Jersey, as measured by receipt of payments from Medicare.
The indictment also charges that Khair and others at K & S concealed his involvement in the company from Medicare and N.J. Medicaid, including his substantial control over K & S’s bank accounts and operations. Khair also paid several K&S employees, and nearly all of the employees’ overtime wages, “off the books” and without withholding the necessary payroll taxes.
The health care count with which Khair is charged carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison. The obstruction of a federal audit and tax evasion counts each carry a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison. The money laundering counts each carry a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison. All the counts also carry a fine of $250,000, or twice the gain or loss from the offense.
Key Facts
- State: New Jersey
- Category: Health Care Fraud
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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