drained<\/a> millions from taxpayer-funded programs meant to help vulnerable seniors.<\/p>\n\u201cThe defendants allegedly turned a pharmacy and social adult day care centers meant to help senior citizens into a $120 million Medicare and Medicaid fraud scheme,\u201d said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva.<\/p>\n
The charges target \u201cthose who prey upon the vulnerable so they can steal from American taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim owned Royal Adult Daycare, Happy Life Inc., and an unnamed pharmacy. Lee served as program director at Happy Life.<\/p>\n
Between 2016 and 2026, the pair allegedly distributed cash and supermarket gift certificates to lure Medicare and Medicaid recipients. Text messages revealed the scope of the scheme.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease give the $10,000 to the Korean members first,\u201d Kim allegedly wrote to a co-conspirator. Lee texted about payments, writing, \u201cI left the envelope [for a patient] with Tony [Kim].\u201d<\/p>\n
The defendants allegedly submitted claims exceeding their facilities\u2019 permitted capacity. They withdrew significant cash from controlled bank accounts to fund the kickback payments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese charges are part of this Office\u2019s commitment to protecting federal programs and prosecuting those who steal from them,\u201d stated U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr.<\/p>\n
Law enforcement executed search warrants and seized multiple bank accounts during the arrests. Both men face conspiracy to commit health care fraud charges carrying a maximum 10-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n
The investigation involved HHS-OIG, FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, and New York State\u2019s Office of the State Comptroller. The case exemplifies the Health Care Fraud Strike Force\u2019s ongoing efforts.<\/p>\n
Since 2007, the strike force has charged more than 6,200 defendants, who collectively billed federal programs more than $45 billion. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Queens men face federal charges for allegedly orchestrating a $120 million fraud scheme targeting Medicare and Medicaid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[55324,55327,11827,383,55332,55328,55329,55325,46833,55331,55326,9,24,63,55330,122,124,55323,2009,123],"class_list":["post-128197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-120-million-fraud-scheme","tag-adult-day-care-fraud","tag-brooklyn-federal-court","tag-department-of-justice","tag-doj-health-care-strike-force","tag-flushing-queens-fraud","tag-health-care-fraud-charges","tag-inwoo-kim-daniel-lee","tag-medicaid-fraud","tag-medicare-fraud","tag-medicare-medicaid-kickbacks","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-pharmacy-fraud-elderly","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-medicare-fraud","tag-queens-new-york","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}