On January 15th, two employees of an adult day care center in Brooklyn pleaded guilty in court, admitting to conspiring to defraud the Medicaid program. The two individuals, Elaine Antao and Manal Wasef, could face up to 10 years in prison.
According to the Department of Justice, Antao and Wasef, the sixth and seventh defendants to plead guilty in this case, facilitated kickbacks for unperformed medical services at two adult day care centers and a home health care company in Brooklyn. Court documents revealed that they were marketing personnel and recruiters for the “Happy Family Adult Day Care Center LLC,” the “Family Adult Day Care Center LLC,” and a financial intermediary company called “Responsible Caregivers LLC.”
From October 2017 to July 2024, Antao and Wasef referred Medicaid beneficiaries to these companies in exchange for illicit kickbacks and bribes. They also paid illegal kickbacks and bribes to the beneficiaries for services that were never actually provided.
Wasef and Antao laundered money through multiple business entities and used the laundered cash to pay kickbacks and bribes. As part of their plea agreement, they agreed to forfeit approximately $1 million in assets.
“The defendants were prolific recruiters who bribed patients with laundered money, and billed the Medicaid program over $68 million for services never rendered,” said Duva, Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division. “Today’s guilty pleas demonstrate the Justice Department’s ongoing commitment to rooting out fraud in government healthcare programs and aggressively pursuing those who steal funds.”