Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced that Arkan Fadhel, 30, of Buffalo, NY, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, was sentenced to serve three years supervised release to include 12 months home incarceration. In addition, Fadhel was also ordered to perform 400 hours of community service. Fadhel will also forfeit $781,186.80 and pay restitution totaling $250,000. Assistant US Attorneys Franz M. Wright and Mary Clare Kane, who handled the case, stated that Fadhel is the owner of Queen City Transportation, Inc., which has been providing non-emergency Medicaid transportation rides since August 2018. Fadhel and several dozen other individuals drove Queen City beneficiaries to appointments, primarily at methadone clinics.
Prior to operating Queen City, Fadhel was a driver for Great Lakes Transportation, another non-emergency Medicaid transportation company. Between August 6, 2018, and December 31, 2020, Fadhel submitted false and fraudulent attestation records to Medical Answering Service, a non-emergency Medicaid transportation management company. The attestation records included claims that rides were provided but never actually took place as well as billing group rides as if the rides had been separate, individual rides. The total loss amount to Medicaid was greater than $250,000.
