Houston, TX – A Houston-area home health care company co-owner has been sentenced to 108 months in prison for his role in a $5.2 million Medicare fraud scheme.
Clifford Ubani, former co-owner and chief financial officer at Family Healthcare Group, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay illegal kickbacks to patient recruiters and 16 counts of paying such illegal kickbacks. He was also ordered to pay $4.2 million in restitution jointly and severally with his co-defendants.
According to court documents and evidence presented in court, Family Healthcare Group purported to provide skilled nursing to Medicare beneficiaries. However, Ubani paid co-conspirators to recruit Medicare beneficiaries for the purpose of filing claims with Medicare for skilled nursing that was medically unnecessary or not provided.
Ubani’s co-conspirators would then falsify documents to support the fraudulent payments from Medicare. He also paid co-conspirators to sign fraudulent plans of care stating that the beneficiaries needed home health care when in fact they knew the beneficiaries were not home-bound and not in need of skilled nursing.
Ubani is the eighth defendant sentenced in connection with this scheme. Two other defendants, co-owner Princewill Njoku and patient recruiter Cynthia Garza Williams, await sentencing.
The case was investigated by the FBI, HHS-OIG, Texas OAG-MFCU, and the Federal Railroad Retirement Board-OIG. It was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.
The Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged over 1,330 defendants who have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $4 billion since its inception in March 2007.
Ubani’s sentencing comes as part of the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), a joint effort between the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the HHS-OIG to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.
To learn more about HEAT, visit www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.
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Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes|White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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