Victoria Finney Brewton, Medicaid Defraud, North Carolina 2023

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A Shelby woman pleaded guilty today for her involvement in a health care fraud scheme that defrauded Medicaid of $8 million for sham mental and behavioral health services, announced Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

In addition to defrauding Medicaid, Victoria Finney Brewton, 37, of Shelby, N.C., also pleaded guilty to stealing a therapist’s identity to commit the fraud and to filing a false tax return.

Brewton pleaded guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler to seven counts of health care fraud and health care fraud conspiracy, one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of filing a false tax return.

According to filed court documents and statements made in court, Brewton operated a series of after-school and summer childcare programs in Shelby.

Brewton recruited juvenile Medicaid recipients to her childcare programs by promising that the program would be free for Medicaid recipients.

After Brewton obtained the children’s and families’ Medicaid recipient numbers, she used this information to fraudulently bill Medicaid for mental and behavioral health services which were never provided.

According to the criminal information, Brewton was not licensed or qualified to provide mental and behavioral health services and she was not approved by Medicaid.

Brewton enlisted the assistance of other complicit Medicaid-approved providers, such as Linda Radeker, and in other instances, stole the identity of Medicaid-approved providers, in order to accomplish the fraud.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdnc/pr/shelby-woman-pleads-guilty-defrauding-medicaid-8-million-aggravated-identity-theft-an-0