Sundae Williams, Patients-For-Cash Kickback Scheme, Illinois 2023

State: Illinois
Category: Fraud &#038; Financial Crimes
Source: <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/owner-suburban-telemarketing-company-sentenced-year-prison-patients-cash-kickback" style="color:#cc0000;" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">DOJ Press Release ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Â Ã¢â‚¬â€

A Chicago area telemarketing company owner has been sentenced to a year in federal prison for her role in a patients-for-cash kickback scheme.

Sundae Williams, 47, of South Holland, operated Serenity Marketing Inc., which did business as Serenity Living. Williams used unsolicited phone calls to recruit Medicare beneficiaries for home health care services and referred them to nursing agencies in exchange for payments on a per-patient basis.

A jury convicted Williams of conspiracy to solicit and receive remuneration in return for referring Medicare patients, and six counts of soliciting and receiving remuneration in return for referring Medicare patients.

U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp Jr. imposed the 12-month prison sentence and ordered Williams to forfeit $599,000, the proceeds of her crimes.

The investigation is part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, a joint initiative between the U.S. government and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to prevent fraud and enforce anti-fraud laws.

Williams is one of several defendants convicted as part of the federal investigation, which includes JAMES ADEMIJU, a nurse from Matteson who operated two suburban nursing agencies, Dr. ALAN NEWMAN, one of the doctors at Suburban Home Physicians, and DIANA JOCELYN GUMILA, a nurse and manager of Suburban Home Physicians.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Chahn Lee and Cornelius Vandenberg. The investigation has resulted in dozens of defendants being charged in numerous fraud cases since the strike force began operating in Chicago in 2011.

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