DALLAS (CN) - The owner of two Dallas-area ambulance companies was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay $1.3 million in restitution for Medicare and insurance fraud. A federal jury in May convicted Muhammed Nasiru Usman of 14 counts, including conspiracy and health care fraud.
Usman, 50, of Arlington, was convicted one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, 12 counts of health care fraud and one count of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity.
Federal prosecutors say his companies fraudulently billed Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers for more than $3.5 million.
Co-defendants Shaun Outen, 32, of Aubrey, Texas, and David McNac, 35, of Dallas, pleaded guilty to their role in the conspiracy before trial and are awaiting sentencing. McNac was the director/manager of the companies and Outen was director of operations and as an upper-level supervisor.
Royal Ambulance Service had offices in Dallas and DeSoto, Texas, and First Choice EMS operated out of Carrollton.
Prosecutors said Usman's companies primarily transferred patients on a nonemergency basis to and from dialysis treatments three times per week. But the men told their employees to omit facts in documenting their work, such as whether patients walked to the ambulance.
Company records showed that many patients rode to appointments in a captain's chair in the ambulance, rather than on a stretcher.
The conviction was a result of "Operation Easy Rider," in which search warrants were executed on ambulance companies across Texas.
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