Home Washington Press Releases 2010 Maryland Woman Sentenced for D.C. Medicaid Fraud
Info
This is archived material from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) website. It may contain outdated information and links may no longer function.

Maryland Woman Sentenced for D.C. Medicaid Fraud
Owner of Transportation Company Billed for Services Not Provided

U.S. Attorney’s Office August 31, 2010
  • District of Columbia (202) 252-6933

WASHINGTON—Lois Diane Fant, owner of a now defunct transportation company, was sentenced today to three years’ probation and 180 days of home detention for billing D.C. Medicaid for non-existent transportation services. The sentence, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, was announced by U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr.; Shawn Henry, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; Nicholas DiGiulio Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS - OIG) Philadelphia Region; and Charles J. Willoughby, D.C. Inspector General.

Fant, 61, of Laurel, Maryland, pled guilty on June 7, 2010, before the Honorable John D. Bates, to the first count of the indictment charging health card fraud. During her guilty plea, Fant admitted that, between January 2003 and June 2005, she submitted false claims to Medicaid for transportation services which, in reality had not been performed, for a total loss to the government of $125,000.

In addition to the home detention and probation, Judge Bates ordered Fant to pay restitution of $125,000.

As explained at sentencing, Medicaid conducted an audit in June 2005 due to Fant’s relatively high volume of claims to D.C. Medicaid, the government program which provides health care and other services to needy residents of the District of Columbia.

Fant was unable to provide any records of transportation services, although regulations required transportation providers, such as her company, to maintain trip logs. Subsequent scheduled audits were cancelled by Fant. The defendant’s company was suspended from being a Medicaid provider in June 2005.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen, Assistant Director in Charge Henry, Special Agent in Charge DiGiulio, and Inspector General Willoughby commended the special agents of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and special agents of the Washington D.C. office of HHS-OIG. They also cited the work of Jacqueline Schesnol, Deputy Director of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, D.C. Office of the Inspector General ;and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney and auditor Clark Geiger, also from the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. They also acknowledged the efforts of former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Roy Austin, Ronald Sharpe, and James Mitzelfeld, U.S. Attorney’s Office paralegal specialists Diane Hayes, Maggie McCabe, and Sarah Reis, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Virginia Cheatham, who prosecuted the case.

This content has been reproduced from its original source.