Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor (OIFP) announced that the State has seized approximately $6.4 million under a final judgment by consent, resolving a case against a now-deceased defendant whose chain of mental health clinics in Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Union, and Warren counties engaged in an elaborate bogus-billing scheme that defrauded Medicaid. The late defendant, Daniel E. Cassell, formerly of Perkasie, Pennsylvania, was named in a 17-count indictment in August 2022, charging him with 16 counts that included financial facilitation of criminal activity, conspiracy, healthcare claims fraud, Medicaid fraud, theft by deception, and other charges. The case was initiated after a referral from the Medicaid Fraud Division of the Office of the State Comptroller. The indictment stated that between January 2015 and October 2020, Cassell, who was the president and chief executive officer of Kwenyan Professional Health Services based in West Orange, as well as Kwenyan and Associates, based in Ewing (the “Kwenyan entities”), was responsible for the submission of thousands of false claims to Medicaid for reimbursement.
