A Greensboro, North Carolina woman, Sharita Mathis Richardson, was sentenced to 22 months in prison and three years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. On March 25, 2021, Richardson pleaded guilty to the charge. As part of sentencing, Richardson was also ordered to pay $2,005,531 in criminal restitution to the North Carolina Fund for Medical Assistance. According to court documents and other information presented in court, between approximately 2012 and 2016, Richardson conspired with Antonio Fozard and others to defraud the North Carolina Medicaid system through the submission of over $4 million in false and fraudulent claims for the reimbursement of behavioral health services. Fozard owned and operated a number of behavioral health companies that purported to provide services to Medicaid beneficiaries in the Middle and Eastern Districts of North Carolina. These companies included Group Service, Inc., and Zoofari Kids, LLC. Each of these entities engaged in a systematic effort to steal from Medicaid by billing for services that were never rendered.
