A Dallas-area home health care employee, Paul Emordi, 52, was sentenced to 60 months in prison today following his trial conviction for conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
According to evidence presented at trial, Emordi and co-defendant Celestine ‘Tony’ Okwilagwe, 50, of Dallas County, Texas, owned and operated Elder Care, a Medicare and Medicaid provider in Garland, Texas, despite being previously excluded from participating in any federal health care benefit program.
The defendants engaged in a scheme to submit false and fraudulent bills to Medicare for services that were not needed, the evidence showed. They also concealed their exclusions from Medicare and Medicaid, and fabricated documents to cover their tracks.
Okwilagwe and Emordi’s partner in crime, Adetutu Etti, 60, also of Dallas County, was convicted of two counts of false statement in connection with a health care benefit program, and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 28.
Another accomplice, Loveth Isidaehomen, 49, also of Dallas County, was convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 18.
U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle of the Northern District of Texas sentenced Emordi to two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $3,559,154.22.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the FBI and the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
The Fraud Section leads the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which has charged nearly 4,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $14 billion since its inception in March 2007.
Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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