The owner of a Los Angeles-based durable medical equipment company has pled guilty to submitting nearly $500,000 in false claims to Medicare, according to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services.
According to federal investigators, Sylvester Ijewere, the owner of Maydads Medical Supply, and others purchased fraudulent prescriptions and medical documents between June 2007 and October 2009. He then submitted false claims to Medicare for expensive, high-end power wheelchairs and other items, investigators said.
Investigators said half of the Medicare beneficiaries that Ijewere allegedly supplied with power wheelchairs and other equipment lived more than 100 miles from his business and didb't need the equipment.
According to court transcripts, Ijewere admitted that the information he used to support his claims to Medicare came from fraudulent medical clinics and patient recruiters. Investigators said he submitted or caused the submission of approximately $471,345 in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare.
Ijewere pled guilty to one count of healthcare fraud and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.