Defendant Falsely Claimed to Provide Services During COVID-19 Pandemic
Sikirat Adunni Brown, 60, of Upper Marlboro, Md., was sentenced today to 13 months in prison for defrauding the D.C. Medicaid program out of more than $340,000.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office Criminal Division, Maureen R. Dixon, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General for the region that includes Washington, D.C, and Daniel W. Lucas, Inspector General for the District of Columbia.
Brown pleaded guilty in July, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to health care fraud. In addition to the prison term, the Honorable Dabney L. Friedrich ordered Brown to pay $343,539 in restitution and $201,645 in a forfeiture money judgment.
According to the government’s evidence, at various times between January 2014 and June 2020, Brown worked as a personal care aide for at least eight different home health agencies in the District of Columbia. The home health agencies employed her to assist D.C. Medicaid beneficiaries in performing activities of daily living, such as getting in and out of bed, bathing, dressing, and eating.
Brown was supposed to document the care that she provided to the Medicaid beneficiaries on timesheets and then submit the timesheets to the home health agencies, which would in turn bill Medicaid for the services that she rendered. In her guilty plea, Brown acknowledged that between 2014 and 2020, she caused the D.C. Medicaid Program to issue payments totaling $343,539 for services that she did not provide. As part of her scheme, she submitted false timesheets to different home health agencies claiming that she provided 20 hours or more of personal care aide services in a given day. She also claimed to provide services when she was traveling outside the D.C. metropolitan area. She paid kickbacks during the scheme to at least one beneficiary. She also acknowledged that she claimed to provide services to one beneficiary during the COVID-19 pandemic even though that beneficiary said she did not.
The FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, the District of Columbia’s Office of the Inspector General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are committed to investigating and prosecuting individuals who defraud the D.C. Medicaid program.
Brown is the tenth former personal care aide in the last three years to plead guilty to defrauding Medicaid in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Five of those aides were sentenced to 13 months in prison; a sixth was sentenced to serve 15 months.
The government urges the public to provide tips and assistance to stop health care fraud. If you have information about individuals committing health care fraud, please call the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General hotline at (800) HHS‑TIPS [(800) 447-8477] or the D.C. Office of the Inspector General at (800) 724-TIPS [(800) 274-8477].
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kondi Kleinman of the Fraud Section, with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Mariela Andrade.
