UPDATE: Five Taxi Company Owners in Orange and Rensselaer Counties Plead Guilty for Roles in Medicaid Transportation Fraud Schemes
Five Medicaid transportation operators indicted in June 2024 following OMIG-assisted investigations pleaded guilty last week for defrauding the Medicaid program of more than $4.4 million through fictitious billing, kickback schemes and money laundering.
Muhammad Rizwan Khan, 38, Muhammad Usman Khan, 40, and Farhan Khan, 29, all of Orange County, and their related Medicaid transportation companies pleaded guilty Dec. 4 in Orange County Court for stealing over $3.8 million from the Medicaid program. The scheme, which ran between September 2019 and October 2023, included illegal weekly kickback payments to Medicaid recipients for using their cabs, submitting Medicaid claims for fictitious trips, and adding fake tolls to trips that were far above any real toll that could be incurred in the area, regularly adding costs of up to $50 per trip.
According to the state Attorney General's office, Muhammad Rizwan Khan and Farhan Khan will be sentenced to two and one-third to seven years and one to three years in state prison, respectively. Muhammad Usman Khan will be sentenced to six months in jail concurrent with five years of probation. The Khans will also pay $2 million to Medicaid in restitution for their crimes.
Separately, John Gouzos, 48, of Nassau County, and Richard Sehl, 57, of Saratoga County, and their Medicaid transportation companies pleaded guilty Nov. 26 in Rensselaer County Court for stealing over $650,000 from the Medicaid program. Between December 2021 and March 2023, Gouzos, Sehl and their companies paid numerous Medicaid patients a weekly kickback to request rides from addresses farther away from where they lived and submitted false claims for Medicaid reimbursement.
State prosecutors said Gouzos will be sentenced to six months in jail concurrent with five years of probation, and Richard Sehl will be sentenced to a five-year term of probation.