Two Kenyan nurses, Winnie Waruru and Faith Newton had been living lavishly before the US arm of the law caught up with them.
According to a statement by the US Government, Waruru pleaded guilty before the US Senior District Judge, George A O’Toole to swindling the health sector of $100 Million dollars.
Winnie Waruru was a home care nurse and Faith Newton was part owner of Arbor Homecare Services LLC.
“According to the indictment, from January 2013 to January 2017, Newton was part owner and operator of Arbor Homecare Services LLC. Waruru was a Licensed Practical Nurse employed as a home health nurse at Arbor.
“Waruru and, allegedly, Newton engaged in a conspiracy to use Arbor to defraud Mass Health and Medicare of at least $100 million by committing health care fraud and paying kickbacks to induce referrals. Newton then allegedly laundered the ill-gotten gains,” read the statement in part.
The prosecutor outlined the allegations made and highlighted that the two made millions by paying kickbacks to get patient referrals.
“Arbor, through Newton and others, developed employment relationships” with patients’ relatives who purported to offer services. They would also pay kickbacks for patient referrals, regardless of medical necessity requirements, in a scheme that saw Arbor’s income run into millions. By entering into “sham” employment relationships with patients’ family members, according to the prosecution, it was easy for Arbor to purport “to provide home health aide services that were not medically necessary and routinely billed for fictitious visits that did not occur”, the Prosecutor noted in detail.
Also Read: NGO Spearheads Cleanup Activities In Kakamega Town
According to US law, the charges of health care fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering conspiracy and money laundering each attracts a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the amount of the money involved in the laundering.
The federal government has filed a case to seize the duo’s properties and freeze their bank accounts.