ALBANY, NEW YORK – Arshad Nazir, age 54, of Ticonderoga, New
York, pled guilty today to conspiring to defraud Medicaid, and conspiring to
pay bribes and kickbacks to Medicaid beneficiaries who used his medical
transportation service. He admitted to
causing at least $550,000 in losses, and to paying at least $95,000 in bribes
and kickbacks.
The announcement was made by:
United States
Attorney Grant C. Jaquith;
James N.
Hendricks, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI);
New York State
Police Acting Superintendent Keith M. Corlett;
New York State Workers’ Compensation Fraud
Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott; and
Rensselaer County
District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly.
Today’s plea is the result of a state and federal
investigation into Medicaid fraud committed by the owners and operators of
medical transportation companies based in Essex County.
Nazir operated Capital Medallion, Inc. d/b/a Avalanche Taxi
Service (“Avalanche Taxi”), a Medicaid-funded transportation company based in
Ticonderoga. The New York State
Department of Health (“DOH”) paid Nazir’s company at least $2.45 million for
Medicaid-funded transportation between 2014 and 2018.
As part of his plea, Nazir admitted that he committed a
variety of frauds against Medicaid and DOH, including: billing Medicaid and
receiving payment for trips where beneficiaries drove themselves to their own
medical appointments, and falsifying the identities of the drivers for those
trips; billing Medicaid and receiving payment for roundtrips to and from
medical appointments when the beneficiaries took only one-way trips with
Avalanche Taxi; and falsifying pick-up and drop-off locations, in order to
increase the purported distances traveled and therefore be able to claim and
receive higher Medicaid payments.
Nazir also admitted that he agreed to pay kickbacks and
bribes to Medicaid beneficiaries in order to get the beneficiaries to schedule
and keep scheduling medical transportation appointments with Avalanche
Taxi. Kickbacks included cash,
cigarettes and tobacco, and free goods at Nazir’s convenience store in
Ticonderoga.
Nazir faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to
$250,000, and a term of post-imprisonment supervised release of up to 3 years,
when he is sentenced on June 18, 2019 by Senior United States District Judge
Thomas J. McAvoy. A defendant’s sentence
is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged
with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.
Nazir has also agreed to pay $550,000 in restitution to the
New York State Department of Health, and to plead guilty to charges of grand
larceny and failure to secure workers’ compensation in a parallel case pending
in Essex County Court, brought by the Rensselaer County District Attorney as
Special Prosecutor.
Charges remain pending against several other
defendants. Those defendants are
presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The federal charges are being investigated by the FBI and
the New York State Police’s Special Investigations Unit, and are being
prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett.
The state charges are being investigated by the New York
State Police’s Special Investigations Unit, as well as the Office of the New
York State Inspector General, and are being prosecuted by Rensselaer County
Assistant District Attorney Carl Rosenkranz.
Additional agencies assisted in this investigation,
including the United States Attorney’s Office-Civil Division; Essex County
District Attorney’s Office; New York State Police-Troop B; the Office of the
New York State Comptroller, Division of Investigations; New York State Attorney
General’s Office, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU); Essex County Sheriff’s
Office; Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); the Office of Inspector General
for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-OIG); and the New
York State Department of Labor.
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