Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Scott Lampert, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Office of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (“HHS-OIG”), announced the unsealing today of an indictment charging acupuncturists Junyi Liu, a/k/a “Jenny,” and Hongxing Wang, as well as physical therapists Gleen Anciro, Noemi Algodon, Mohamed Elmandouh, Gerard Estrella, Ramon Garcia III, and Henler Datu Tahil, and cashier Zihao Chen with operating an over $20 million healthcare fraud scheme at fraudulent medical offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. As part of the fraud scheme, Chen and other of the defendants’ co-conspirators paid cash kickbacks to patients who were insured by Medicare and/or other insurance providers, and the defendants and their co-conspirators then billed Medicare and the insurance providers for physical therapy and acupuncture services related to the Paid Patients that were unnecessary or never performed. Liu was additionally charged with unlawfully enriching herself and a family member through a COVID-19 unemployment benefit scheme. The defendants were arrested earlier today and will be presented this afternoon before US Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein.
