A Nigerian, Ifeanyi Ozoh, residing in the United States, has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for his role in a $6 million bribery scam. The scam targeted the U.S. Medicaid insurance program, where Ozoh was involved in fraudulent activities to obtain unlawful claims from the insurance company.
This was confirmed in a statement released by U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani and published on the U.S. Department of Justice website on Wednesday. According to the statement, Ozoh's illegal activities were centered around kickbacks designed to defraud Medicaid by falsely billing for treatments that never took place.
Ozoh, aged 54, was convicted after a federal jury found him guilty of conspiring to bribe individuals in order to funnel Medicaid-insured patients into a fake clinic under the pretense of receiving treatment. These sham services allowed for false claims to be submitted to the insurance company. In addition to his six-year prison sentence, Ozoh was ordered to pay restitution of $4.9 million to the insurance company and will also face three years of supervised release upon completing his prison term.
According to the U.S. Attorney, “A 54-year-old man has been sentenced following his conviction for conspiring to pay and receive healthcare kickbacks, including payments to marketers. This involved bribing individuals to bring Medicaid-insured children to a non-existent dental clinic, which allowed for fraudulent insurance claims to be made.”
The case against Ozoh followed an intense investigation into the scheme, and a jury deliberated for only an hour before returning a guilty verdict on all charges. The sentencing comes after a three-day trial, where it was revealed that Ozoh played a central role in coordinating the bribery operation that victimized Medicaid. Ozoh’s conviction and sentencing serve as a warning against health insurance fraud and the manipulation of public funds meant for healthcare services.
