A Kenyan-born nurse, Winnie Waruru, based in the United States who pleaded guilty in September to a USD 100 million (Ksh.12 billion) home health care fraud scheme, will be sentenced on Thursday.
Waruru and her co-accused, Faith Newton, were charged with defrauding Massachusetts State of the amount by filing false claims and billings to a programme that provides health coverage to low-income earners.
According to the indictment, from January 2013 to January 2017, the two allegedly billed MassHealth and Medicare for fraudulent home health services and paid kickbacks to induce patient referrals, some of which were unnecessary.
Newton is then accused of laundering the ill-gotten gains.
The duo allegedly entered sham employment relationships with patients’ family members in order to provide home health aide services that were not medically necessary and routinely billed for fictitious visits that did not occur in order to syphon more money.
In February 2021, they were arrested and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, one count of aiding and abetting health care fraud, and one count of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks.
Waruru was also charged with two counts of making false statements and one count of making a false statement in relation to health care, while Faith Newton was charged with one count of money laundering conspiracy and seven counts of money laundering.
The U.S. Senior District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. scheduled sentencing for Jan. 12, 2023.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, if found guilty, Waruru faces a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
Meanwhile, Newton has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. She is said to be the wife of Francis Nderitu Kimaru, a Kenyan man who was arrested in 2016 after investigators discovered that his company, Compassionate Homecare Inc, had been filing false Medicaid claims, causing the US government to lose USD 43 million (Ksh.5.2 billion).
