Brooklyn Park Man Charged with Making False Statements to Federal Investigators

Patrick Daniel Osei, owner of Advance Home Health, was charged today in federal court in Minneapolis with making false statements to federal investigators in an attempt to hide assets from them. Specifically, Osei, age 50, of Brooklyn Park, was charged via an Information with two counts of making a false statement.

The charges stem from Osei’s April 29 and April 30, 2010, interviews with federal investigators. Those interviews were conducted following Osei’s plea of guilty to one count of illegal remuneration for offering and paying out a kickback to induce referrals to his home health care business. As part of his plea agreement, he agreed to identify all assets and make restitution for the losses he caused the Medicaid program. One purpose of the April 29 and April 30 interviews was the identification and recovery of assets that could be used to pay back Medicaid.

During the April 29 and April 30 interviews, Osei provided false information about relevant assets. Osei, for example, maintained he had mailed a cashier’s check in the amount of $63,000 to an attorney in Ghana as part of an adoption process, when, in fact, he knew that those funds had not been sent to Ghana.

Osei, who awaits sentencing in connection with the Medicaid fraud case, now also faces a potential maximum penalty of five years in prison on each false-statement count. All sentences will be determined by a federal district court judge.

This case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Genrich.