The US Department of Justice has indicted Olatunbosun Osukoya, a Nigerian, along with 323 others in a nationwide operation targeting healthcare fraud schemes that caused an estimated $14.6 billion in intended losses.
The announcement was made on the DOJ’s website on Thursday.
The defendants, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other medical professionals, allegedly defrauded patients and taxpayers across 50 federal districts and 12 state jurisdictions.
Osukoya, 67, of Plano, Texas, and owner of Ayo Biometrics, LLC (operating as Cambridge Diagnostics), is accused of submitting over $25 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, TRICARE, and other insurers for expensive electroencephalogram (EEG) testing.
According to the DOJ, Osukoya allegedly targeted insured individuals for unnecessary tests and paid kickbacks and bribes to medical professionals to refer patients to his diagnostic center.
To conceal the fraud, he and his co-conspirators reportedly falsified diagnoses and disguised kickback payments as loans, medical directorships, or consultation fees.
Osukoya is said to have received over $5 million from the claims and paid out more than $450,000 in illegal kickbacks.
In a separate case, Diaspora NG had reported that Newton Ofioritse Jemide, a 47-year-old Nigerian based in France, was extradited to the US and sentenced to three years and five months in prison for his role in an $8 million disaster fraud scheme.
Jemide was convicted of fraudulently obtaining federal grants intended for vulnerable US citizens and was sentenced on Tuesday by Judge Deborah K. Chasanow in a US District Court.
