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Owner of Home Health Agency Jailed 5 Years for $4.5 Million Medicare Scam
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Owner of Home Health Agency Jailed 5 Years for $4.5 Million Medicare Scam

Felix Maduka, 59, of Richmond, Texas, has been sentenced to five years in prison for his leading role in a conspiracy to structure over $1.8 million in bank withdrawals to conceal a $4.5 million healthcare fraud scheme.

Maduka, the owner of Joystar Home Health Services LLC, pleaded guilty on April 16, 2014, to conspiring to structure more than $1.8 million in cash withdrawals and eight counts of structuring cash withdrawals from bank accounts where his company received fraudulent payments from Medicare.

His wife and co-defendant, Stella Maduka, 49, was Joystar’s Director of Nursing. She pleaded guilty to one count of healthcare fraud and one count of making false statements.

According to court documents, Felix and Stella Maduka withdrew just under $10,000 in cash from Joystar bank accounts on nearly 300 occasions to avoid the bank’s mandatory reporting requirements of cash transactions involving more than $10,000 in cash.

The scheme involved paying illegal kickbacks to recruiters in exchange for referring Medicare beneficiaries to Joystar and to doctors for authorizing home health services that were not medically necessary nor provided. To further conceal the scheme, Felix and Stella Maduka fabricated patient records to support the fraudulent Medicare billing.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas, and other federal agencies investigated the case, which was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force.

The Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged nearly 2,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6 billion since its inception in March 2007.