One Missouri City, Texas, couple discovered what happens when you defraud the government.
According to KPRC News, 72-year-old Vincent Nwabeke and his wife, 71-year-old Victoria Nwabeke, were sentenced on Oct. 5 for their roles in using the home healthcare service they ran to defraud Medicare. Judge Alfred Bennett ruled that the pair collectively would pay slightly over $9.5 million restitution and serve time in prison for their roles in a scheme where they billed Medicare for unnecessary services for their patients.
Vincent will serve one year and one day in federal prison, paying Medicare $1,084,996. His wife, Victoria, will serve four years in federal prison, followed by three months of supervised release and repaying Medicare $8,523,917. The septuagenarians will remain free on bond and turn themselves in at a facility to be chosen later.
Source: Texas couple sentenced in $8 million Medicare fraud case / Black Enterprise
yes, I know it’s Medicare, not Medicaid. But Texas still has its outsized share of Medicaid fraud, which contributes to swollen budgets and compounds annually.
By the way, this an many other cases are preventable, and HHSC has chosen to ignore the solution we have presented to them on numerous occasions. But given the checkered history of the IG (Wilson, Bowen, $100 phony contract from Jack Sick) nobody should be surprised. When the taxpayers see their state and federal taxes rise due to this, perhaps they will arouse from the collective slumber