Doctor, Healthcare CEO Charged In Multi-Million Dollar Scam
CHICAGO (STMW) -- The boss of a Chicago-based healthcare firm is a fraudster who oversaw a massive scam to overbill for doctors' house calls in six states, federal authorities alleged Tuesday.
Mobile Doctors CEO and owner Dike Ajiri, 42, of Wilmette, and one of the doctors who worked for him—Banio Koroma, 63, of Tinley Park—have both been arrested and charged in connection with the alleged multimillion dollar swindle, the Sun-Times is reporting.
Ajiri's business, which arranged for doctors to make house calls, is accused of ripping off Medicare by routinely overstating the seriousness of patients' conditions.
Though Mobile Doctors' visits were typically straightforward and took just 10-30 minutes, the feds say, the firm nearly always billed the taxpayer for complex, 40-minute-plus consultations.
The firm also often lied that patients were housebound, entitling it to extra government funds, it's alleged.
In addition to its headquarters at 3319 N. Elston, Mobile Doctors also has offices in Detroit, Flint, San Antonio, Austin, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Phoenix and St. Louis, according to a criminal complaint.
A search warrant was executed Tuesday in an attempt to seize up to $2.568 million in alleged fraud proceeds. But the alleged scam may have been far larger: The firm boasted on its website that it had carried out 500,000 house calls since 1996.
Ajiri and Koroma are due to make their first appearances before a judge Tuesday in federal court in Chicago.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
