Home Health & Hospice Week
Collared Home Health Fraud Fugitive Pleads Guilty
A fugitive in a nearly decade-old home care fraud case has been brought to justice. Recap: In 2016, Global Healthcare Inc. owner Florence Bikundi was sentenced to 10 years in prison and her husband and co-owner Michael Bikundi Sr. received seven years in prison after being found guilty of Medicaid fraud and related charges (see HHHW by AAPC, Vol. XXV. No. 22). The judge also ordered the Bikundis to pay $80.6 million in restitution to D.C. Medicaid, among other fines and penalties. Earlier in the case, the couple was ordered to forfeit more than $11 million seized from 76 bank accounts; their $1 million residence; $73,000 in cash seized from their residence; and five luxury vehicles with a total purchase price of more than $400,000, the release adds. Seven others, many of them Florence Bikundi’s relatives, pled guilty in the case. Two were indicted and became fugitives. One of those fugitives was Atawan Mundu John, a.k.a., John Mundu Atawan. After being apprehended in Maryland in July, he has now pleaded guilty to attempting to tamper with a witness during the investigation, the Department of Justice says in a release. Back in 2014, one of the Medicaid beneficiaries who received kickbacks from John to help facilitate the fraud recorded a call in which John instructed the beneficiary to lie to the FBI about ever receiving money or kickbacks. John also acknowledged the fraud in the call, the DOJ says. He is scheduled for sentencing in November. The other fugitive in the case, Christian Asongcha, remains at large, according to the DOJ.
Home Health & Hospice Week
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Collared Home Health Fraud Fugitive Pleads Guilty
A fugitive in a nearly decade-old home care fraud case has been brought to justice. [...]
