A 54-year-old Nigerian man, Ifeanyi Ozoh, has been sentenced following his conviction for conspiring to pay and receive health care kickbacks and payment of kickbacks to marketers.
This was announced in a statement by US Attorney Alambar Hamdani, published on the UD Department of Justice website.
A federal jury deliberated for an hour following a three-day trial before finding Ozoh guilty on all counts on February 14, 2024.
U.S. District Chief Judge Randy Crane on Wednesday, November 13, sentenced Ozoh to 72 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release.
Ozoh was also ordered to pay restitution to Medicaid in the amount of $4.9 million.
At the hearing, the court heard Ozoh was integral to the kickback scheme as he bribed marketers and parents to bring their Medicaid-insured children to a sham dental clinic. In handing down the sentence, the court noted the overwhelming evidence of Ozoh’s guilt presented at trial.
Ozoh worked at a local dental clinic known as Floss Family Dentalcare Center from January 2020 to February 2021.
At the time of trial, the jury heard how Ozoh paid marketers $20 to $100 for each Medicaid-insured child referred to Floss. The marketers testified that Ozoh secretly paid them in cash and out of sight of other witnesses, sometimes putting their illegal kickback payments on top of a vending machine down the hall from the clinic.
One clinic manager testified that she repeatedly warned Ozoh that paying marketers was illegal.
The jury also heard that Ozoh paid out over $163,000 in bribes to marketers and received bonuses for reaching a quota of patients.
From 2020 to 2021, Floss billed Medicaid over $6 million. Floss received over $4 million on those claims, most of which were predicated on a kickback paid to marketers and for dental services that were not provided.
During the trial, a representative testified that Medicaid prohibits the payment of kickbacks for referrals of medical services.
Ozoh was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.
FBI, Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathryn Olson and Lauren Valenti prosecuted the case.