Illegal immigrant tied to massive Medicare fraud gets 3 years in prison
ByBrooks Egerton/Reporter
begerton@dallasnews.com | Bio
11:52 AM on Thu., May. 10, 2012 | Permalink
A Nigerian man who lied to become a U.S. citizen has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for immigration 
fraud and Medicare fraud.
Plano resident Okey Nwagbara, 45, is the first person to be imprisoned for crimes connected to Medistat Group Associates -- the DeSoto business run by Dr. Jacques Roy (right), who federal prosecutors say orchestrated a record-setting home health-care fraud scheme.
Nwagbara, who owned a company in Richardson called Advanced MedEquip and Supplies, cut a deal under which prosecutors recommended letting him serve his sentences for both crimes simultaneously. U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay agreed to this in assessing punishment Monday.
The defendant had asked for an even more lenient sentence. Prosecutors objected last month, calling Nwagbara "a fraudster of the highest order" whose immigration fraud "merely laid the groundwork for his next fraud scheme: accessing Medicare and stealing as much as he could without getting caught."
When pleading guilty in January, Nwagbara admitted paying kickbacks to Roy employee Jerry C. Bullard in exchange for business.
"Upon receiving cash payments from Nwagbara, Bullard would sign 'JRoy MD' on Medistat prescription pads, durable medical equipment information forms (DIFs) and 'Certificate of Medical Necessity' for enteral nutrition products falsely indicating among other things that the beneficiary required tube feeding," according to a summary of facts signed by Bullard. He has also pleaded guilty to Medicare fraud and faces sentencing June 4.
