Federal prosecutors say seven Long Islanders were criminally charged in federal court in Brooklyn Wednesday in connection to a $2.75 billion Medicare and Medicaid fraud scheme.
The Long Islanders facing charges include Noman Ahmed of Port Jefferson Station, Adnan Arshad of Mount Sinai, Rehman Diwan of Hicksville, Jessica Hendrickson of Patchogue, Mohammed Saleem of Dix Hills, Faisal (“Jimmy”) Shamsi of Massapequa and Waqas (“Ricky”) Shamis of Massapequa.
“It does not matter if you are a trafficker in a drug cartel or a corporate executive or medical professional employed by a health care company, if you profit from the unlawful distribution of controlled substances, you will be held accountable,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a news release about the arrests.
“The Justice Department will bring to justice criminals who defraud Americans, steal from taxpayer-funded programs, and put people in danger for the sake of profits,” he added.
“These defendants have been charged with treating the Medicare and Medicaid programs like cash registers they could use to ring up withdrawals from the public treasury straight into their pockets,” U.S. Attorney for New York’s Eastern District Breon Peace said in the news release.
“The enforcement actions announced today demonstrate my Office’s resolve to prosecute those who exploit our health care benefits programs for personal gain,” he added.
LIBN was unable to immediately reach the attorneys for the defendants. They, along with Jose Marte from the Bronx, were charged with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, healthcare fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay five healthcare kickbacks, paying healthcare kickbacks, and money laundering.
Officials say the defendants owned, operated and were employees of several transportation companies. Since December 2020 the defendants allegedly paid illegal healthcare kickbacks to Medicaid beneficiaries so that those beneficiaries would order medical transportation services specifically from the defendants, which generally included transportation to addiction treatment centers for the beneficiaries’ purportedly necessary methadone treatment.
The defendants, officials said, had generally not provided the medical transportation services ordered by the Medicaid beneficiaries. In total, the defendants and their transportation companies 668 MTK Taxi LLC, All-Star Taxi LLC, Apollo Transportation, Sunrise Taxi LLC and Transportation Solution NY Corp. d/b/a A1 Transport had allegedly fraudulently billed Medicaid millions of dollars for these services throughout the course of the scheme. At least two claims were allegedly submitted to Medicaid for individuals who were deceased, and some claims were allegedly submitted for individuals who were hospitalized or incarcerated.
Officials said the charges come after a two-week nationwide law enforcement action that resulted in criminal charges against 193 defendants for their alleged participation in healthcare fraud and opioid abuse schemes that resulted in the submission of more than $2.75 billion in alleged false billings to government programs. The defendants allegedly defrauded programs entrusted for the care of the elderly and disabled, and the DOJ, in connection with the enforcement action, seized over $231 million in cash, luxury vehicles, gold and other assets.
“My Office remains committed to stand and work with our federal partners in combatting crime and keeping our citizens safe," Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said in the news release. “Those who seek to illegally profit off the backs of hardworking U.S. taxpayers will be found out and brought to justice. The defrauding of our citizens will not be tolerated.”
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