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United States Attorney's Office
Eastern District of Virginia
United States Attorney Neil H. MacBride
Joint release from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Peter Carr
Public Information Officer
Phone: 703-842-4050
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Laura Taylor
Phone: 804-819-5400
Owners of Woodbridge home health business indicted for health care fraud,
aggravated identity theft
ALEXANDRIA (June 29, 2012) - The owners of a Woodbridge-based home health care business have been indicted for submitting numerous false claims for Medicaid reimbursement for services they did not provide. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Neil MacBride, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Washington field office James McJunkin made the announcement today, after Irvine Johnston King, 46, and Aisha Rashidatu King, 40, of Woodbridge, were charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; 22 counts of health care fraud, which each carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; and two counts of aggravated identity theft, which each carry a consecutive mandatory penalty of two years in prison, if convicted.
According to the indictment, the Kings owned and operated Bright Beginnings Healthcare Services, a business that provided in-home personal and respite care and private duty nursing services to Medicaid-eligible individuals. From at least March 2008 through June 2011, the Kings allegedly defrauded Medicaid by, among other things, submitting false claims to Medicaid for services that were not provided, providing fabricated documentation in connection with an audit, and instructing an employee to lie to Medicaid about claims billed by Bright Beginnings. In addition, the Kings allegedly instructed an employee to convince a patient's mother to lie to Medicaid regarding the false claims and asked the parent of a patient to sign blank Medicaid time sheets that were used as a basis to bill Medicaid for services that the Kings knew had not been performed.
The Kings are also accused of using - without lawful authority to do so - the name, date of birth, and insurance identification number of a patient on at least two occasions on claims seeking reimbursement from Medicaid.
The indictment seeks at least $624,155 in forfeiture as alleged proceeds of the fraud.
The investigation was conducted by the Virginia attorney general's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the FBI Washington Field Office. Virginia Assistant Attorney General and Special Assistant U.S Attorney Steven W. Grist and Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy D. Belevetz are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
Criminal indictments are only charges and not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.
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A copy of this news release may be found on the attorney general's web site here.
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