Press Release
Attorney General Ellison charges 11 people with $800K in Medicaid fraud
Including Chappy’s case, AG’s office charges total 21 people with $3M in Medicaid fraud this week
September 27, 2019 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison today announced 50 felony charges against 11 individuals in nine different cases that involve various billing-fraud schemes alleged to have cost Minnesota’s Medical Assistance (Medicaid) program more than $800,000.
Today’s charges bring to 21 the number of people charged with a total $3 million in Medicaid fraud this week. On Tuesday, September 24, Attorney General Ellison filed 76 criminal charges against 10 defendants in a case involving the owner, managers, and employees of comprehensive home care facility Chappy’s Golden Shores in Hill City. The charges in that case include manslaughter, assault, neglect, racketeering, theft of over $2.1 million of Medicaid funds, operating a comprehensive home-care facility without a license, concealing criminal proceeds, perjury, and obstruction of the State’s criminal investigation.
“All Minnesotans trying to afford their lives have a right to expect that every one of their tax dollars will be used legally. Minnesotans who receive Medical Assistance have a right to expect that they’ll receive all the care, dignity, and respect they’re entitled to. People who commit Medicaid fraud violate both of those rights. My office is working aggressively to hold them accountable and will keep doing so,” Attorney General Ellison said.
Attorney General Ellison’s office laid charges against the following people today:
- Kaldeq Yusuf, 33, of Hopkins and Abdifatah Ali, 39, of Eagan, owned and managed personal care assistant (PCA) agency Diversity Home Health Care, Inc. Yusuf and Ali stole the identities of multiple PCAs and used them to report thousands of hours of services that were not rendered. They also arranged unlawful kickback agreements in which PCAs and recipients completed timesheets for services that were not provided, then split the PCAs’ paychecks. Diversity received over $400,000 in Medicaid funds from Yusuf and Ali’s fraudulent schemes.
- ZamZam Shoodeh, 52, and Rashid Mohamoud, 55, both of St. Paul, owned and managed Care Home Health, Inc. Over a two-and-half-year time period, Shoodeh and Mohamoud stole $260,000 from the Medicaid program by billing for PCA services that were not provided, sometimes using the identities of PCAs who no longer worked for Care. In furtherance of these schemes, they directed clients to pre-sign blank timesheets and paid them thousands of dollars of illegal kickbacks.
- Nadine Royter, 57, of Plymouth, an owner of Willow Grove Family Dental, billed for over $100,000 of services using the identity of dentist B.L. who had resigned from Willow Grove due to concerns with Royter’s unethical business practices. In one instance, Royter billed for dentures purportedly provided by B.L. to patient W.B. W.B. told investigators he never received dentures.
The other people Attorney General Ellison’s office charged today are Noah Lee, 52, of Brooklyn Park; Sheronda Boyland, 37, of Minneapolis; Anthony Sims, 53, of St. Paul; Darrell Clemons, 37, of Brooklyn Park; Ethel Reyes, 27, of Burnsville; and Aretha Cheatham, 36, of Calumet Park, Illinois.
This week’s charges come in the context of a multistate Midwest Health Care Fraud Takedown, a joint effort of state and federal authorities in Minnesota, Michigan, and Illinois that resulted in 66 people total being charged with Medicaid or Medicare fraud.
All cases were investigated and are being prosecuted by the Minnesota Attorney General Office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The charges contained in the complaints are accusations; the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
