Press Releases
EMPLOYEES OF LOCAL MEDICAID AGENCY PLEADS GUILTY TO FEDERAL HEALTH CARE OFFENSES
October 22, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CHERYL MOUTON, age 45, a resident of Marrero, LA, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle to a one count bill of information charting health care fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1347, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten.
According to the indictment, A New Beginning of New Orleans, Inc.(ANBNO), was a Medicaid Provider located in Harvey, Louisiana that made claims for Personal Care Services it claimed to have provided to Medicaid recipients. CHERYL MOUTON was an employee of ANBNO.
Personal Care Services (PCS) are Medicaid services provided by attendants to eligible recipients meeting the medical necessity criteria who are unable to care for themselves. The bill of information alleged that ANBNO solicited mothers with children who had Medicaid benefits to apply for PCS. It is alleged that in many cases, a false prescription for PCS was created and transmitted to Medicaid; and in other cases, true prescriptions were transmitted relative to children with true disabilities.
It was further alleged that after Medicaid approved the PCS applications, false documentation containing employees’ time sheets and daily schedules which detailed the services rendered to Medicaid child recipients was created by employees of ANBNO and parents of the Medicaid recipient children. These bills of information are part of the same scheme charged in an indictment returned on June 5, 2008, in which AKASIA LEE and MICHAEL DAVIS, owners and operators of ANBNO, D’JUAN ROBINSON, QUEBAN LEE, UNA FAVORITE BROWN and MELINDA LANGLEY, employees of ANBNO, and ERNESTINE GIROD a mother of Medicaid recipients, were charged in multiple counts of conspiracy and health care fraud. From the time of the inception of ANBNO through May 4, 2005, when a federal search warrant was executed at the business location of ANBNO, Medicaid paid approximately $3,977,288 as a result of the fraudulent claims made by ANBNO and its employees.
CHERYL MOUTON faces up to ten (10) years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. The U. S. Attorney reminds citizens that the statutory maximum penalties notwithstanding, the U. S. Sentencing Guidelines, although not mandatory, still remain advisory in the fashioning of sentences by the Court.
This investigation is being conducted by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Louisiana Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Patrice Harris Sullivan.
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