Home New Orleans Press Releases 2009 Owner of Local Medicaid Agency Sentenced to Five Years in Federal Prison for Health Care Offense
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Owner of Local Medicaid Agency Sentenced to Five Years in Federal Prison for Health Care Offense

U.S. Attorney’s Office November 17, 2009
  • Eastern District of Louisiana (504) 680-3000

NEW ORLEANS, LA—AKASIA LEE, age 36, a resident of New Orleans, was sentenced today in federal court by U. S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon to five (5) years (60 months) in prison for her role in the conspiracy to commit health care fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. In addition to the term of imprisonment, Judge Lemmon ordered that LEE pay $3,977,288 in restitution, a $1 million fine and be placed on three (3) years of supervised release following the term of imprisonment, during which time the defendant will be under federal supervision and risks an additional term of imprisonment should she violate any terms of her supervised release.

According to court documents, on March 19, 2009, LEE pled guilty to one count of a superseding indictment admitting that she and workers of A New Beginning of New Orleans, Inc. (ANBNO) conspired to commit health care fraud. According to the factual basis, LEE, the owner/operator of ANBNO, a Medicaid provider that made claims for Personal Care Services (PCS) it claimed to have provided to Medicaid recipients, solicited mothers with children who had Medicaid benefits to apply for PCS. LEE admitted that after Medicaid approved the PCS applications, false documentation containing employees’ time sheets and daily schedules which detailed the services rendered to Medicaid child recipients was created by employees of ANBNO and parents of the Medicaid recipient children. LEE further admitted that Medicaid paid approximately $3,977,288 as a result of the fraudulent claims made by ANBNO and its employees.

The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and the Louisiana Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Patrice Harris Sullivan, Jordan Ginsberg and G. Dall Kammer.

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