Following a three-day trial, a federal jury in Houston has convicted a 65-year-old Houston resident, Abudul Audu Azia Ozigi, for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. At the trial, co-conspirator Margaret Arise testified that she owned numerous home health agencies in the Houston Area. She admitted she hired Ozigi to act in the role of a physician to see patients in their homes. Ozigi did not have a license to practice medicine in the United States and was also not under the supervision of a physician when he treated patients. Arise further testified Ozigi visited patients and qualified them for home health, when in fact, they did not need services. In addition, recruiters were paid to provide patient information to bill them for home health services regardless of whether they needed care. Arise, 63, Missouri City, was previously convicted and is currently pending sentencing. At the trial, Ozigi attempted to convince the jury he had no knowledge of fraud and did not have the intent to defraud Medicare. He testified that he was merely seeing patients for Arise, despite not having any medical license in the United States and without being supervised by a physician. The jury did not believe the defense claims and found Ozigi guilty as charged.
