A Brooklyn woman was sentenced yesterday to 76 months in prison in connection with her leadership of a vast $64 million Medicaid fraud and illegal kickback scheme at her two social adult daycare centers and home health care company.\u00a0The defendant was also ordered to pay over $56 million in restitution and to forfeit $5 million in fraud proceeds, including two properties, cash, and gold jewelry seized during a search of her home, as pictured below.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photograph of cash seized when a search warrant was executed on Zakia Khan\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
Photograph of cash seized when a search warrant was executed on Zakia Khan\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
Photograph of jewelry seized when a search warrant was executed on Zakia Khan\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Fraud Division will relentlessly hold accountable individuals who exploit Medicaid and take advantage of services meant to support our seniors,\u201d said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department\u2019s National Fraud Enforcement Division. \u201cThis sentence should put all Medicaid fraudsters on notice \u2014 if you steal from Medicaid, we will uncover your conduct, protect the beneficiaries you harm, and ensure you are brought to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday\u2019s sentencing sends a strong message of deterrence in our District,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr.\u00a0for the Eastern District of New York. \u201cOur Office and the Justice Department are focused on protecting American taxpayers from fraudsters and as such, we will vigorously prosecute corrupt health care owners and operators in our district.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSocial adult day care and home health services are designed to support seniors, not line the pockets of fraudsters,\u201d said Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Miranda L. Bennett of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). \u201cToday\u2019s sentence sends an important message that anyone who illicitly exploits the Medicaid program will be held accountable to the full extent of the law.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKhan acted with staggering greed, leading a scheme to defraud Medicaid of millions of dollars intended for people in need. She and her co-conspirators set up social adult day cares but, instead of providing care and services to our most vulnerable neighbors, they enriched themselves with cash, gold and property,\u201d said Acting Special Agent in Charge Pete Gizas of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York.\u00a0\u201cToday\u2019s sentence sends a message: we will be relentless in our pursuit of justice against fraudsters. HSI is working side by side with our law enforcement partners to uncover and dismantle complex fraud networks like this one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cZakia Khan stole $64 million from the Medicaid program through bribes and kickbacks\u2014money meant to support the most vulnerable,\u201d stated NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.\u00a0\u201cThis was not only deeply illegal but also immoral, and the NYPC will continue to investigate anyone who exploits government programs for personal gain. I thank our NYPD investigators and all our partners in law enforcement for their work in stopping this criminal and bringing this case to a close.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to court documents, Zakia Khan, 55, of Brooklyn, New York, owned two social adult daycare centers\u2014Happy Family Social Adult Day Care Center Inc. (Happy Family) and Family Social Adult Day Care Center Inc. (Family Social). She also owned a home health care fiscal intermediary called Responsible Care Staffing Inc. and an entity she used to receive and disguise fraud proceeds called Tanwee Services Inc.<\/p>\n
From approximately October 2017 through July 2024, in exchange for kickbacks and bribes, a web of marketers referred Medicaid recipients to Khan\u2019s social adult daycare centers. As depicted in the pictures below, Khan and the marketers paid kickbacks and bribes to the Medicaid recipients to induce them to sign up for services that Khan then billed to Medicaid. These services were never actually provided as represented to Medicaid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Between 2017 and 2024, Happy Family and Family Social fraudulently billed Medicaid approximately $64 million. Medicaid paid approximately $56 million based on these false and fraudulent claims. Khan and her co-conspirators used multiple business entities to launder the fraud proceeds and generate the cash used to pay kickbacks and bribes to the marketers and the Medicaid recipients.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zakia Khan on an undercover recording paying illegal kickbacks inside her office at Happy Family.<\/p>\n
Medicaid recipients receiving illegal cash kickbacks in exchange for filling out false attendance sheets for Zakia Khan\u2019s social adult daycare centers.<\/p>\n
Medicaid recipients receiving illegal cash kickbacks in exchange for filling out false attendance sheets for Zakia Khan\u2019s social adult daycare centers.<\/p>\n
In August 2025, Khan\u00a0pleaded guilty<\/a> to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay health care kickbacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n HHS-OIG, HSI New York, and NYPD investigated the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n Deputy Chief Patrick J. Campbell and Trial Attorney Leonid Sandlar of the National Fraud Enforcement Division\u2019s Health Care Fraud Section prosecuted the case, with the assistance of Assistant U.S. Attorney Claire Kedeshian for the Eastern District of New York who assisted with forfeiture matters.<\/p>\n On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division (Fraud Division). The Fraud Division is laser-focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people. The Department\u2019s work to combat fraud supports President Trump\u2019s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.<\/p>\n The Department of Justice\u2019s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in federal districts across the country, has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion since 2007. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at\u00a0www.justice.gov\/criminal-fraud\/health-care-fraud-unit<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Brooklyn woman was sentenced yesterday to 76 months in prison in connection with her leadership of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-845367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845367","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=845367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}