The owner of a Schenectady County medical transportation company today was sentenced to serve three to nine years in state prison and pay restitution of $766,600 for stealing more than $700,000 from New York state’s Medicaid program and over $60,000 from the state’s unemployment insurance program, State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, Schenectady County District Attorney Robert M. Carney, and Schenectady County Sheriff Dominic Dagostino announced today.
Muhammad Adnan Saeed, 40, owner of Sublime Medical Transportation, pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the second degree in January in connection with his Medicaid fraud and unemployment scheme.
"Muhammad Saeed systematically defrauded the Medicaid program by fraudulently inflating claims in order to pad his wallet and then compounded his crimes by lying about his income in order to obtain unemployment benefits,” DiNapoli said. “The Medicaid program provides access to essential health care for millions of people, and my office will continue to partner with law enforcement to root out waste, fraud and abuse. I thank District Attorney Carney and Schenectady County Sheriff Dagostino for their partnership in bringing Saeed to justice.”
“It is true that there is waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicaid system when it comes to providing transportation to recipients of benefits in the opioid treatment program,” Carney said. “This defendant engaged in elaborate schemes to steal public funds including inventing non-existing trips, providing kickbacks to clients to ride with him, and pretending to need unemployment benefits. I agree strongly with Comptroller DiNapoli that this conduct deserves criminal prosecution and incarceration, and I am happy to partner with him not only to bring that about in this case, but hopefully to deter others who may be contemplating engaging in similar fraud.
Under Medicaid regulations, patients may use transportation services for legitimate appointments, which are then billed to the Medicaid program by the transportation provider. Group rides are not allowed without prior authorization, and when approved, providers can only bill for mileage once for the group. Sublime was enrolled in the Medicaid program as a participating transportation provider for program beneficiaries.
The joint investigation revealed that Saeed fraudulently billed the Medicaid program for over four years, claiming payment for individual rides which were actually unauthorized group rides. Investigators determined that nearly 85% of Sublime’s Medicaid claims were fraudulent.
The investigation also found Saeed paid kickbacks to Medicaid enrollees to use Sublime’s services and facilitate the crime. Saeed, who earned $88,500 as a driver for his company, also applied for and unlawfully collected state unemployment insurance benefits in excess of $60,000, while at the same time running Sublime.
Since taking office in 2007, DiNapoli has committed to fighting public corruption and encourages the public to help fight fraud and abuse. New Yorkers can report allegations of fraud involving taxpayer money by calling the toll-free Fraud Hotline at 1-888-672-4555, by filing a complaint online at https://www.osc.ny.gov/investigations, or by mailing a complaint to: Office of the State Comptroller, Division of Investigations, 8th Floor, 110 State St., Albany, NY 12236.