An indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging eight defendants for their alleged roles in a scheme to defraud Medicaid of approximately $68 million through the operation of two Brooklyn-based social adult day cares and a home healthcare financial intermediary that were paying kickbacks and bribes for services that were not provided. According to court documents, beginning in approximately October 2017, the defendants Zakia Khan and Ahsan Ijaz owned and operated two Brooklyn-based social adult day cares, Happy Family Social Adult Day Care, Inc. (Happy Family) and Family Social Adult Day Care, Inc. (Family Social), and a financial intermediary, Responsible Care Staffing, Inc. (Responsible Care), for the New York Medicaid Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP), which permits family members of Medicaid recipients to receive payment for assisting Medicaid recipients with activities of daily living.
In exchange for kickbacks and bribes, marketers Elaine Antao, Omneah Hamdi, and Manal Wasef referred Medicaid recipients to Happy Family, Family Social and/or Responsible Care. The marketers in turn allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to Medicaid recipients for social adult day care and CDPAP services that Happy Family, Family Social and Responsible Care billed to Medicaid but were not provided or were induced by kickbacks and bribes. Ansir Abassi and Amran Hashmi managed Happy Family and Family Social and the marketers. To carry out the kickback scheme, Khan, Antao, Ijaz, Abassi and Hamdi allegedly used business entities to launder the fraud proceeds and generate the cash used to pay kickbacks and bribes. Seema Memon, an employee of Happy Family who was previously charged by complaint on July 1, 2024, was also indicted for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud.
