October 10th 2023.
A Missouri City, Texas couple recently learned the hard way that defrauding the government is never a good idea. Vincent Nwabeke, 72, and his wife Victoria, 71, were sentenced on Oct. 5 for their roles in using the home healthcare service they ran to defraud Medicare. Judge Alfred Bennett ordered that the pair collectively would pay slightly over $9.5 million restitution and serve time in prison.
Vincent was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison, and ordered to pay Medicare $1,084,996. His wife, Victoria, was sentenced to four years in federal prison, followed by three months of supervised release, and she was ordered to repay Medicare $8,523,917. The couple will remain free on bond until they turn themselves into a facility at a later date.
The Nwabekes ran Vital Ambulatory Healthcare Inc. from 2012 to 2018. Victoria was accused of getting referrals by paying marketers and patients money as well as bribing doctors to authorize medically unnecessary services for the clients of Vital Ambulatory Healthcare. Vincent served as the chief financial officer of Vital and admitted in 2018 that he attempted to hide evidence of kickbacks his wife had paid out.
The Nwabekes case is the latest in a string of multimillion-dollar Medicare/Medicaid fraud cases in the state of Texas. In August, drug manufacturers settled with the State of Texas to pay $42 million as part of an agreement prosecuted under the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act. Since 2000, Texas has recovered nearly $2.5 billion in taxpayer money from individuals or corporations committing fraud.
Medicare fraud is a serious problem nationwide. According to the Senior Medicare Patrol’s website, Medicare fraud costs approximately $60 billion annually. The Nwabekes case serves as an important reminder to the public that defrauding the government is a serious offense with serious consequences.
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