The owner of Meik Medical Equipment and Supply, a durable medical equipment supplier located in the Bronx, New York — which now seems to be defunct, and the company’s manager, Ayodeji Fasonu, are now officially federally convicted for engaging in a scheme to defraud Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care plans. Meik owner, Ikechukwu Udeokoro, and Fasonu were convicted of fraudulently billing the two insurance companies for over $3.8 million between December 2010 and February 2014 for hundreds of expensive patient support systems that were never provided to patients or caregivers.

The support systems billed included large devices designed to assist with lifting immobile patients and patients in nursing homes. Udeokoro and Fasonu instead provided patients with recliner chairs that included a seat lift feature. In the years this went on, the company billed Medicare and Medicaid over $3.8 million and were in-turn paid approximately $2.8 million as part of the scheme.

The FBI and United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) investigated the case and gathered sufficient evidence to arrest the two men for healthcare fraud. Trial attorney’s Andrew Estes and Patrick J. Campbell of the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Fraud Section then successfully prosecuted both Udeokoro and Fasonu on the charge. Both men are scheduled to be sentenced on their conviction of healthcare fraud on Aug. 14 and Aug. 16, respectively, and face a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. The federal district court judge assigned to the case will determine sentencing after considering US Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

In the Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs press release, it was noted that the departments fraud section leads the criminal divisions efforts to combat healthcare fraud through its Health Care[sic] Fraud Strike Force Program that began in March 2007. The program has since charged more than 4,200 defendants who have collectively billed Medicare for than $19 billion.