LYNCHBURG, Va. — A trio of former healthcare workers, including the director of nursing Shekita Gore, a.k.a. Shekita Steele, have been hit with serious charges after admitting to bilking Medicaid out of thousands of dollars in fraudulent claims.
Gore, 38, from Clinton, Maryland, and Eno Utuk, 47, from Stafford, Virginia, face up to a decade behind bars for their roles in the elaborate scam. Elizabeth Ilome, 41, also from Stafford, is looking at three years max for her part in the misdeed.
The trio’s boss, Carolyn Bryant-Taylor, 61, of Clinton, Maryland, along with Kafomdi ‘Josephine’ Okocha, 49, and Samuel Okocha, 52, both from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, have all previously pleaded guilty to similar charges. They ran 1st Adult N Pediatric Healthcare Service, a Medicaid-enrolled home health agency that has now been exposed for its fraudulent activities.
According to court documents, the defendants concocted a scheme to submit false claims for services never rendered to patients. They falsified records and documentation to support these fraudulent claims, with Gore admitting to filling out blank nursing notes to back up billing for nursing services that were absent.
Bryant-Taylor and Okocha orchestrated payments to parents or guardians of patients in exchange for signed, blank nursing notes. These notes would later be filled out to support Medicaid reimbursements for services not rendered, either entirely or in excess.
Utuk and Ilome admitted to paying cash to family members for signing off on fraudulent nursing and personal care services billing. The scheme ran from 2017 until 2023, when the FBI’s Richmond Division and Virginia Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit stepped in to investigate. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan Jones and Laura Taylor, along with Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Terry, are handling the prosecution.
Related Federal Cases
- Shekita Gore Pleads Guilty in Healthcare Fraud Scam · Maryland
- Maryland Woman Pleads Guilty to Healthcare Fraud Conspiracy · Maryland
- Sreedhar Potarazu Pleads Guilty to $30M Fraud · Maryland
- Tony Bryant, Son and Tarkara Cooper Guilty in $20M Tax Fraud Scheme · Maryland
- Lee Gets 75 Months for Card Fraud Repeat Offense · Maryland
Key Facts
- State: Virginia
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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