Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Four Individuals Convicted in $4.7 Million Louisiana Medicare Fraud Scheme

WASHINGTON – The owner of a Baton Rouge, La., durable medical equipment (DME) company, a medical doctor and two patient recruiters were each convicted late yesterday for their roles in a $4.7 million Medicare fraud scheme, announced the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) of the Louisiana State Attorney General’s Office.

After a two-week trial, Nnanta Felix Ngari, Dr. Sofjan Lamid, Henry Lamont Jones and Ernest Payne were each convicted by a federal jury in the Middle District of Louisiana of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive illegal health care kickbacks.

Ngari owned and operated Unique Medical Solution Inc., a Baton Rouge-area DME supplier that specialized in the provision of power wheelchairs to Medicare beneficiaries. Evidence at trial established that beginning in late 2003, Ngari paid recruiters, including Jones and Payne, to locate and solicit Medicare beneficiaries to attend “health fairsâ€