By Ifeanyi Ozoh, a 54-year-old Nigerian national residing in the United States, was sentenced to six years in federal prison for his involvement in a $6 million bribery scheme targeting Medicaid, the U.S. health insurance program. U.S. District Chief Judge Randy Crane imposed the sentence, which will be followed by three years of supervised release.
The sentencing, announced by U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani, comes after Ozoh was convicted on February 14 for conspiring to pay healthcare kickbacks. He was also ordered to pay $4.9 million in restitution to Medicaid.
Ozoh, who worked at Floss Family Dentalcare Centre in Houston, orchestrated a scheme in which he bribed marketers and parents to bring Medicaid-insured children to a non-existent dental clinic for treatment. Claims filed with Medicaid totaled over $6 million, with the clinic receiving more than $4 million in payments based on these fraudulent charges.
During the three-day trial, testimonies revealed that Ozoh paid marketers between $20 and $100 for each child referred to the clinic, often conducting the transactions covertly. One marketer reported receiving cash payments hidden on top of a vending machine outside the clinic.
Evidence presented at trial indicated that Ozoh had paid out over $163,000 in kickbacks and had been warned by clinic personnel about the illegality of his actions. The scheme operated from 2020 to 2021, resulting in inflated billing to Medicaid based on services that were not actually rendered.
Despite the guilty verdict and subsequent sentencing, Ozoh has been allowed to remain on bond and will voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility at a later date.
