Certified Attorney Sentenced to Jail For Defrauding Medicaid in Plan Involving Particular Treatment Expert services | USAO-DC

            WASHINGTON – Susan Engonwei Tingwei, 44, of Silver Spring, Md., a certified attorney, was sentenced right now to 10 months in prison for defrauding the D.C. Medicaid system out of additional than $100,000 in a plan involving fake promises about personalized care solutions.

            The announcement was designed by U.S. Lawyer Matthew M. Graves, Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Demand of the FBI Washington Industry Office’s Prison Division, Maureen R. Dixon, Exclusive Agent in Charge of the U.S. Office of Health and Human Services’ Business office of Inspector Common for the region that involves Washington, D.C., and Daniel W. Lucas, Inspector Common for the District of Columbia.

            Tingwei pleaded guilty in November 2021, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to wellbeing treatment fraud. She was sentenced by the Honorable Carl J. Nichols. Pursuing her prison time period, she will be put on two several years of supervised launch. She also will have to fork out $131,656 in restitution and an similar volume in a forfeiture income judgment.

            In court paperwork, Tingwei admitted that at several situations in between 2016 and 2018, she was used by two unique home well being companies in the District of Columbia. The residence well being organizations employed her to guide D.C. Medicaid beneficiaries in performing pursuits of each day dwelling, these as getting in and out of bed, bathing, dressing, and ingesting.

            Tingwei was intended to document the care that she supplied to Medicaid beneficiaries on timesheets and then submit the timesheets to the house health and fitness companies, which would in turn bill Medicaid for the solutions that she rendered. As section of her guilty plea, Tingwei admitted that she submitted fake timesheets claiming to present services that she did not truly render.

            Tingwei attained her Learn of Rules diploma from the College of Maryland in May possibly 2017. She was admitted to the New York condition bar in February 2018 and the Maryland point out bar in January 2020.

            On 118 instances concerning August 2016 and Might 2017, Tingwei submitted timesheets declaring that she labored as a personalized care aide in Washington, D.C., all through the exact several hours when she possibly was scheduled to show up at law college classes in Baltimore, or when she must have been traveling to or from Baltimore linked to her regulation faculty plan. For illustration, Tingwei submitted timesheets boasting that she presented expert services to two beneficiaries on April 13, 2017, one from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the other from 3:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Information display Tingwei’s critical card swiping in at the University of Maryland’s regulation faculty campus at 5:30 p.m. and swiping out at 9:29 p.m. Cell cellular phone information also confirmed her cell mobile phone becoming in Baltimore involving 8:03 a.m. and 9:31 p.m. that day.

            Tingwei admitted that her fraud plan commenced no later than August 2016 and continued as a result of September 2018. She acknowledged properly defrauding the D.C. Medicaid program out of $131,656.

            The FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Business of Inspector Standard, the District of Columbia’s Office of the Inspector General’s Medicaid Fraud Management Unit, and the U.S. Attorney’s Workplace are fully commited to investigating and prosecuting people who defraud the D.C. Medicaid system.

            Considering that August 2018, 11 former private treatment aides have pleaded responsible to defrauding Medicaid in the U.S. District Court docket for the District of Columbia. Six of these aides have been sentenced to 13 months in jail a seventh was sentenced to serve 15 months.

            The authorities urges the public to deliver tips and guidance to stop health and fitness treatment fraud.

            If you have information and facts about men and women committing health treatment fraud, make sure you contact the Department of Wellness and Human Services’ Place of work of Inspector Common hotline at (800) HHS‑TIPS [(800) 447-8477] or the D.C. Office of the Inspector Normal at (800) 724-Strategies [(800) 274-8477].

            This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Lawyer Kondi Kleinman and previous Assistant U.S. Attorney Denise Simmonds, with help from Paralegal Professional Michon Tart and former Paralegal Professionals Angeline Thekkumthala and Brittany Phillips.