President of Transportation Company Sentenced to 57 Months in Prison for Falsely Billing D.C. Medicaid Over $1.8 Million

WASHINGTON - Akiuber Ndoromo James, President of Voice of Social Concern Association, Inc. (“VSCA”), a company that provided transportation to elderly and disabled individuals, has been sentenced to 57 months in prison for the false billing of D.C. Medicaid for over $1.8 million, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Dan Levinson, Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), and Guy J. Cottrell, Inspector in Charge of the Washington Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (“USPIS”), announced today.

James, 45, received his sentence yesterday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan, who also ordered that, following the defendant’s release from prison, the defendant be placed on three years of supervised release. In addition, Judge Sullivan signed orders of forfeiture as to a money judgment of $1,856,812.71 and two vehicles, including a 2004 Land Rover, and ordered the defendant to pay a total of $1,856,812.71 in restitution to the federal and D.C. Medicaid programs, to be offset by any recovered amounts.

On March 20, 2007, a federal jury sitting in the District of Columbia found the defendant guilty of 20 counts of health care fraud, false statements related to health care, and money laundering stemming from the false billing of D.C. Medicaid for over $1.8 million. On April 2, 2007, the jury also found the defendant liable for over $1.8 million in fraudulent billing and authorized the seizure of that amount. Investigators had already seized $1.2 million from the defendant’s bank accounts along with two vehicles. The $1.2 million seized was the largest cash seizure in the history of D.C. Medicaid.

According to the evidence at trial, between 2001 and 2005, James submitted false invoices to D.C. Medicaid claiming that transportation services had been provided by VSCA to Medicaid beneficiaries (primarily elderly and disabled individuals), when, in fact, those services had not been provided, including in cases where the beneficiaries were deceased, had never used VSCA, or had discontinued using VSCA, or in cases where VSCA simply inflated the number of trips that were actually provided or the reimbursable amount for provided services. VSCA also claimed to transport at least one individual who was incarcerated when she was supposedly transported. In addition, VSCA billed Medicaid for transporting individuals to various locations--especially methadone treatment facilities--without receiving approval from D.C. Medicaid that the individuals needed or were otherwise entitled to transportation paid for by Medicaid.

James, who operated the business from his apartment in the 3000 block of 15th Street, NW, hired several drivers and registered VSCA as a non-profit organization. Within a couple years, the company became one of the top-billing health care transportation companies in the city -- billing Medicaid over $2.1 million from 2001 through 2005. Over that time, Medicaid paid James over $1.8 million. Based on the billing authorizations James actually obtained, he should have been paid just under $6,000. It was shown at trial that James used the money for his own personal benefit.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Persichini, HHS Inspector General Levinson and USPIS Inspector General Cottrell praised the efforts of the following individuals: USPIS Inspector Brian Evans, FBI Agent Regina Burris, and HHS Special Agent Elton Malone. In addition, they thanked USPIS Inspector Shari Rowe; FBI Agents Michael Lasut and Mitch Song; and HHS Agents Cindy Sheedy, Tracy Yaeger, Robert Slease, Erin Fuchs, Kenneth Marty, LaTonya Tucker and Tracy McFadden. They also commended the work of former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Roy L. Austin and Linda McKinney, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Bowman, William Cowden, Diane Lucas, Susan B. Menzer, and Ellen Chubin Epstein.

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