LOS ANGELES – A Hawthorne woman who ran a company that submitted more than $7 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare – primarily for power wheelchairs that were not needed by patients – and resulted in the loss of nearly $3.5 million to Medicare has been sentenced to six years and six months in federal prison.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald also ordered Adeline Ekwebelem, 51, to pay $3.4 million in restitution to the Medicare program.
As prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed with the court: “In addition to exploiting Medicare’s honor system, defendant’s scheme also took advantage of the beneficiaries’ unfamiliarity with the English language and the Medicare system, forcing them to provide their personal Medicare information and sign forms shifting liability for the power wheelchairs to them, even though the forms were neither translated nor explained to the beneficiaries. In some cases, defendant’s conduct even prevented beneficiaries from getting medical care they later needed.”
During the course of the scheme, Ekwebelem submitted more than $7 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and received nearly $3.5 million.
Following a seven-day trial last September, a federal jury found Ekwebelem guilty of 16 counts of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud and payment of illegal kickbacks, according to authorities.
The evidence showed that Ekwebelem’s Gardena-based durable medical equipment supply company, Adelco Medical Distributors, Inc., billed Medicare for medically unnecessary equipment– primarily power wheelchairs – for people often recruited off the street.
As part of the scheme, which ran from January 2007 through December 2011, Ekwebelem illegally paid kickbacks to “marketers” who recruited those beneficiaries and then paid kickbacks to a handful of complicit doctors in exchange for fraudulent prescriptions for durable equipment, officials said.
Those doctors included Dr. Charles Okoye, who was sentenced to two years in federal prison after he plead guilty to conspiring with Ekwebelem to commit health care fraud.
In addition, Dr. Uche Chukwudi, who fled a month before trial, remains a fugitive. Three of Adelco’s marketers – Romie Tucker, Cindy Santana and Maritza Hernandez – have also received sentences of up to two years in prison for their roles in the scheme.
As the evidence at trial showed, Ekwebelem did more than cause substantial losses to Medicare – she also caused harm to Medicare beneficiaries. Medicare will only pay for one wheelchair every five years.
On at least one occasion, Ekwebelem submitted a fraudulent claim to Medicare for a power wheelchair that she did not even let the beneficiary keep, which later prevented the beneficiary from getting a wheelchair when it was actually needed.