Las Vegas man sentenced in $10M Medicaid fraud scheme
A Las Vegas business owner was sentenced Friday to 12 years in federal prison for his part in a more than $10 million Medicaid fraud scheme.
Timothy Harron, 52, and his wife, Latisha, billed the North Carolina Medicaid program for home health care services they didn’t provide, court records show.
They did so by searching online obituary postings by North Carolina funeral homes and using dead people’s information to see if they had been eligible for Medicaid during their life.
If they had, the couple used that person’s identity to back-bill Medicaid for up to one year of services that were never rendered, according to court documents.
Between 2017 and 2019, more than $10 million was fraudulently billed to North Carolina Medicaid.
The fraud started when Latisha Harron created Agape Healthcare Systems Inc., a Medicaid home health provider in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, and concealed her prior identity theft conviction, records show.
She moved to Maryland in 2012 but continued to bill Medicaid as though Agape was still providing services in North Carolina. In 2017, she moved to Las Vegas to live with Timothy Harron, and the two married in 2018.
They formed Assured Health Care Systems, which was funded entirely by Agape’s fraudulent Medicaid claims, court documents state. When enrolling, Timothy Harron’s prior felony fraud conviction was also concealed.
Timothy Harron pleaded guilty to conspiring with his wife to launder the proceeds of the Agape fraud, often through Assured’s bank accounts, into various luxury items.
The expenses included a $900,000 wire for the purchase of a private jet, hundreds of thousands of dollars in clothing and jewelry, thousands of dollars on North Carolina business properties, and thousands of dollars in gym equipment, court records show.
Timothy Harron was ordered to forfeit more than $13 million in cash, a private plane, a sports car, a pickup truck, property in North Carolina and other luxury items. He must also pay more than $4.3 million in restitution.
On May 18, Latisha Harron was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for her role in the scheme.
Contact Briana Erickson at berickson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5244. Follow @ByBrianaE on Twitter.