Jacqueline Tuanqui, Medicare Kickback Scheme, Illinois 2019
A federal jury in Chicago has found Jacqueline Tuanqui, 56, of Bartlet, Illinois, guilty of her role in a $3 million Medicare kickback scheme.
According to evidence presented at trial, from 2008 to 2015, Tuanqui paid kickbacks in return for the referral of Medicare beneficiaries to Hexagram Home Health Care (Hexagram), a home health company that operated in the Chicago metropolitan area between 2008 and 2016.
The evidence established that Tuanqui and her co-conspirators billed Medicare $12 million, at least $3 million of which was fraudulent.
Tuanqui was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, seven counts of payment for specific kickbacks and one count of visa fraud.
Sentencing has been scheduled for July 1, 2019, before U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood of the Northern District of Illinois, who presided over the trial.
This case was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG with the assistance of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division's Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Leslie Garthwaite and Daniel Griffin of the Criminal Division's Fraud Section.
Key Facts
- State: Illinois
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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