A United States-based Nigerian man, Ifeanyi Ozoh, has been sentenced to six years in prison for his involvement in a $6 million bribery scheme targeting a U.S. insurance company, Medicaid, through illegal kickbacks.

Ozoh has been ordered to pay $4.9 million in restitution to the insurance company and will serve three years of supervised release after completing his prison term.

The sentencing was confirmed in a statement by U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani, published on the U.S. Department of Justice website on Wednesday.

According to the statement, 54-year-old Ozoh was found guilty of conspiring to pay bribes to secure patients registered under Medicaid insurance.

These patients were fraudulently referred to a non-existent clinic under the guise of receiving treatment, enabling Ozoh and his associates to submit fraudulent claims to Medicaid.

The statement read, “A 54-year-old man has been sentenced following his conviction for conspiring to pay and receive health care kickbacks and payment of kickbacks to marketers, announced U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.

“A federal jury deliberated for an hour following a three-day trial before finding Ifeanyi Ozoh guilty on all counts February 14.

“The U.S. District Chief Judge Randy Crane has now ordered Ozoh to serve 72 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release. Ozoh was also ordered to pay restitution to Medicaid for $4.9 million.

“In handing down the sentence, the court noted the overwhelming evidence of Ozoh’s guilt presented at trial.”

Ozoh, who resided in Houston, Texas, worked for Floss Family Dentalcare Centre, a dental clinic implicated in the fraud. Medicaid was billed $6 million, of which Floss received over $4 million.

During the trial, marketers testified that Ozoh paid them $20 to $100 for each Medicaid-insured child referred to Floss.

“The marketers testified that Ozoh secretly paid them in cash and out of sight of other witnesses, sometimes putting their illegal kickback payments on top of a vending machine down the hall from the clinic,” the statement revealed.

“One clinic manager testified that she repeatedly warned Ozoh that paying marketers was illegal. The jury also heard that Ozoh paid out over $163,000 in bribes to marketers and received bonuses for reaching a quota of patients.

“From 2020 to 2021, Floss billed Medicaid over $6 million. Floss received over $4 million on those claims, most of which were predicated on a kickback paid to marketers and for dental services that were not provided.”

The judgment allows Ozoh “to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future,” the statement concluded.

Vanguard News