A New Jersey man who owned a New York-based medical equipment and supply business and the manager of the company were convicted Tuesday for their roles in a $3.8 million health care fraud scheme, authorities said.
Ikechukwu Udeokoro, 47, of North Bergen, owned Meik Medical Equipment and Supply that was located in the Bronx and Ayodeji Fasonu, 56, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, managed the company, according to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
The business was listed online as “permanently closed.”
Through Meik, Udeokoro and Fasonu billed Medicare Advantage and Medicaid-managed care plans for hundreds of expensive patient support systems that were never provided to them or their caregivers, the office said.
These support systems included large devices that were designed to assist with lifting immobile patients and patients in nursing homes, federal prosecutors said. In reality, Udeokoro and Fasonu provided patients with recliner chairs that had a seat lift feature.
The pair fraudulently billed the two insurance companies more than $3.8 million between December 2010 and February 2014 and were paid about $2.4 million, investigators said.
Udeokoro and Fasonu were both convicted of health care fraud and were scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 14 and Aug. 16, respectively, the office said. They each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
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Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.