A mother and daughter who owned and operated an adult daycare center on Staten Island were arrested for allegedly bilking the government of $530,000 for a host of Medicaid scams, including submitting claims for clients who had either died or left the country, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Yangsim Oum, 79, the owner of Staten Island Adult Day Care Center on Forest Ave. in Mariners Harbor, and her daughter, program director Juyone Choe, 49, were arrested Tuesday and charged with healthcare fraud, falsifying business records and other crimes in a whopping 457-count indictment following a massive joint federal and state Medicaid fraud investigation dubbed “Operation Golden Grift.”
Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon called Oum and Choe two of “Staten Island’s most lucrative con artists” at a press conference Wednesday, accusing them of “using and abusing our borough’s seniors as pawns in a vast criminal enterprise.”
“Our investigation found that the defendants billed Medicaid and managed long-term care companies for hundreds of seniors that the Staten Island Adult Daycare Center quite simply never served, nor did they intend to serve them,” McMahon said.
In total, Oum and Choe pocketed more than $530,000 through fraudulent billing practices between April 17 and August 25, including billing for services for clients who had died or were out of the country, according to the indictment.
On Tuesday, several adult daycare centers around the city were raided by federal and state investigators, including centers on Fort Hamilton Parkway near 50th St. and 8th Ave. near 40th St. in Brooklyn.
Investigators were seen leaving the adult daycare centers carrying boxes of potential evidence. Criminal charges were not filed in the Brooklyn raids.
The raids were part of a months-long “coordinated crackdown” on suspected Medicaid fraud at social adult daycare programs, Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters on Tuesday.
“We’re targeting providers we believe who engaged in illegal activity ranging from money laundering to kickbacks to improper billing and other fraudulent activities,” Hochul said.