Immigrant Scammed Medicare for $1 Million in Mo. Case

February 28, 2007

Bradley J. Schlozman, U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that the owner of a medical supply business was sentenced in federal court for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare of millions of dollars through a program that provides motorized wheelchairs to patients.

Kennedy Igbokwe, 29, a citizen of Nigeria, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to five years and three months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Igbokwe to pay $750,000 in restitution and to forfeit to the government $500,000 and all the funds in a bank account. Schlozman noted that the sentence is the harshest penalty provided under the federal sentencing guidelines.

"After being welcomed as a guest in this country, the defendant plundered the Medicare program in an outrageously bold and rapacious health care fraud scheme," Schlozman said. "Every dollar he stole from the Medicare program is a dollar deprived from elderly Americans who depend on Medicare for their health care needs."

Source: Coalition Against Insurance Fraud