The federal government has charged a South Portland personal care agency with healthcare fraud conspiracy related to Medicaid billing.

An indictment was unsealed Tuesday morning, laying out the government’s allegations against Community Home Health Care LLC, its owner and five employees.

According to the document, investigators determined that the employees billed the state’s MaineCare program and received Medicaid funding for services that they knew they hadn’t provided. The allegations focus on personal care services that were reportedly provided to one unnamed client.

The defendants have also been indicted on counts related to obstructing a healthcare investigation, for allegedly encouraging someone with knowledge of the situation not to speak with law enforcement after two related FBI raids in Augusta and Biddeford on June 23, according to the indictment.

Defense attorney Michael Conley said Tuesday that Community Home Health Care’s owner, Noora Abd, is presumed innocent.

“An indictment is an accusation. It is not a finding,” Conley said in an email. “The government writes it and presents it to a grand jury that meets in secret. No defense lawyer is in that room. No judge is in that room. Noora Abd was not in that room. She is presumed innocent. We will contest these charges in open court.”

Prosecutors say in the indictment that Maine paid roughly $600,000 to Community Home Health Care since 2020 for the client to receive personal care support. The state later reversed $35,000 of that, according to the indictment.

“Health care fraud — in all its forms — costs all of us,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Benson in a statement on Tuesday. Benson said if “you steal from our healthcare system for your own financial gain, you too, will be shut down and brought to justice. Protecting the integrity of all our federally funded healthcare programs for those who really need them is paramount.”

If convicted, defendants face years in prison, fines and other penalties, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Jeffrey Grimming, Homeland Security Investigations Acting Special Agent in Charge, said in a statement on Tuesday that the arrests “dismantled an elaborate alleged fraud ring dedicated to fleecing a system meant to help those in need.”

Benson said the Maine Attorney General’s Office and its healthcare fraud unit assisted in the case.

Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said in a statement on Tuesday that “federal and state officials are working continuously to protect public dollars.”

All six named defendants were arrested Tuesday, according to court records. They have been scheduled for various detention hearings Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon at the federal courthouse in Bangor.

The employees have been accused of creating false entries in the state’s Electronic Visit Verification system, which is used to track Medicaid-eligible services as they’re performed, including the person who has performed the services and the date.

Alkhalaf Mohammed, one employee accused to have participated in the scheme, has also been indicted on one count of delivering a false statement for denying the allegations during an FBI raid of his home in Augusta on June 23. Property records state that Mohammed was the property owner.

Investigators said in the indictment that they seized more than $116,000 in cash during an FBI search of a property in Biddeford that day, and more than $53,000 from the search of Mohammed’s reported address.

Photographs of the search showed officials from the FBI and the Office of the Maine Attorney General; both agencies declined at that time to comment on the nature of those searches.

Community Home Health Care is one of five reported agencies that the state as suspended Medicaid payments to, effective June 29, according to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Another agency that has been temporarily barred from receiving Medicaid payments, Maine Connect Care, was included on a list of matters that the Office of the Maine Attorney General’s criminal division accidentally sent to members of the press earlier in October.

That document indicated that Maine prosecutors were waiting to hear back from the U.S. Attorney’s Office about plans for pursuing criminal or civil charges against that company, as well as another behavioral health provider that DHHS has taken action against, following allegations of Medicaid misuse.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has criticized the state’s Medicaid program this year, saying in February that the state “needs to clean up its act.”

In January, a federal audit reported Maine made at least $45.6 million in improper Medicaid payments for autism support services in 2023. State officials pointed out at the time that the audit did not include findings or allegations of fraud.

In a brief news conference on Tuesday, Benson was asked whether to expect more Medicaid fraud indictments.

“I don’t want to comment on exactly what we anticipate, but I will say the investigation is ongoing,” Benson said.

Staff writer Jake Freudberg contributed to this report.

This is a developing story.