{"id":739805,"date":"2026-07-02T22:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T22:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/739805\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T22:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T22:46:10","slug":"long-island-con-artist-posed-as-doctor-in-nyc-and-regularly-saw-patients-in-100k-fraud-scheme-ag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/739805\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Island con artist posed as doctor in NYC and regularly saw patients in $100K fraud scheme: AG"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Long Island fraudster posed as a white coat-wearing doctor and even doled out prescriptions at a Queens clinic while using her accomplice\u2019s medical credentials to bilk Medicaid, state prosecutors announced Thursday.<\/p>\n

Francia Aguila, 53, and Gifty Appiah, 59, of Staten Island, were slapped with charges as part of an \u201celaborate Medicaid fraud scheme\u201d allegedly totaling over $100,000 that lasted more than three years, according to the state attorney general\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Aguila, of Farmington, regularly saw patients at Steinway Hope Medical in Astoria even though she had no license to practice medicine, AG Letitia James\u2019 office said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Attorney General Letitia James. Matt Roberts\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Yorkers in need of medical care sought treatment at Steinway Hope Medical, where they were taken advantage of by a fake doctor as part of an elaborate Medicaid fraud scheme,\u201dJames said in a statement.<\/p>\n

She allegedly referred to herself as \u201cDoctor Fran\u201d and dressed in a white coat while examining unsuspecting patients as Appiah, a licensed nurse practitioner, allegedly raked in $10,000 each month \u2014 even though she rarely showed up at the clinic.<\/p>\n

Instead Aguila, a part owner of the bogus practice, used Appiah\u2019s identity and credentials to dole out prescription medications while performing stethoscope exams and checking out patients\u2019 eyes with a penlight, prosecutors alleged.<\/p>\n

\u201cPracticing medicine without a license risks the lives of New Yorkers and undermines the integrity of our health care system,\u201d James added.<\/p>\n

\"EntranceThe fraud allegedly went on for years. Google<\/p>\n

Both fraudsters submitted phony claims to the state\u2019s Medicaid-funded MCOs that documented that Appiah checked out patients, with the total bill at $105,018 between March 2021 and November 2024, the AG\u2019s office said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy office will continue to root out fraud in our state\u2019s Medicaid program and protect New Yorkers by bringing unlicensed practitioners to justice,\u201d the attorney general also said.<\/p>\n

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Aguila and Steinway Hope Medical were each charged with a count of unauthorized practice of a profession, a count of first-degree falsifying business records and a count of unauthorized use of a professional title.<\/p>\n

Appiah was hit with two counts of offering a first-degree false instrument for filing.<\/p>\n

The two women could face up to four years behind bars on the top count, the AG\u2019s office said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An email to Steinway Hope Medical was not immediately returned. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Long Island fraudster posed as a white coat-wearing doctor and even doled out prescriptions at a Queens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[6884,97,252,253,49710,48182,5871,31954,194],"class_list":["post-739805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-fraud","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-letitia-james","tag-medical-care","tag-metro","tag-queens","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}