Paul Njoku, owner and CEO of home health care agency Opnet Health Care Services Inc., was convicted of all counts of Medicare fraud and falsifying medical records. The conviction came following a three-day trial and less than two hours of jury deliberations.
Federal prosecutors said Njoku forged signatures of doctors and nurses and would cut out old signatures and tape them onto newly created doctors' orders, nursing notes, and nursing assessments.
Njoku would then submit the falsified records in response to a Medicare request for records to obtain payment for providing home health services.
Authorities said a witness testified that Njoku once bribed a doctor in exchange for approving home health services.
From 2015 to 2019, the company allegedly billed Medicare over $400,000 in claims for home health services and received over $360,000 after falsifying records to support those claims.
The judge in the case will set Njoku's sentencing at a later date, but he faces up to 10 years for conspiracy to commit health care fraud, five years for two counts of false statements, and another two years for identity theft.
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