Nigerian Indicted In $42 Million Health Care Fraud

A Nigeria native who lives in Houston has been indicted on charges he sought $42 million in false Medicare and Medicaid claims by paying folks $100 each to sign blank health care forms he would later submit for reimbursement.

Umawa Oke Imo, 54, a permanent resident alien in the United States and native of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was indicted last week but first charged and detained in June.

He’s accused of using an improperly staffed physical therapy clinic called City Nursing Services of Texas to conspire to commit health care fraud, mail fraud and money laundering, U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced. The clinic is at 9888 Bissonnet.

In a 36-count indictment, Imo is accused of paying recruiters to refer “patients” and paying those people $100 to sign numerous blank health care claim forms that were falsely submitted to the government though no care was rendered. Prosecutors allege Imo paid even more to keep patients from reporting the fraud to authorities once they saw claims had been made in their names.

Imo’s lawyer Ralph Martinez, who said he’s paid by Imo’s family in Nigeria because Imo’s funds are frozen, said his client was just one of many investors is this and two other clinics and had little to do with the day-to-day running of the clinic.

“He never saw patients. This is about people caught red-handed trying to curry favour with the government by blaming my client,” Martinez said.

The $42 million in billing was put through from 2007 to April 2009. Medicare paid more than $27 million and Medicaid nearly $3 million to City Nursing, prosecutors said.

The government alleges there was a cheque for $1 million made to Imo himself.

Martinez said his client, who initially had a public defender, does not live a lavish lifestyle. His home in Richmond has an appraised value of $283,340.

This was a joint investigation involving the FBI, IRS, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and state Medicaid fraud control.