Guilty Plea in Fraud Case as Defendant Awaits Trial In Deadly Roosevelt Blvd. Crash
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Philadelphia man, charged in a horrific crash on the Roosevelt Boulevard last year that killed a mother and three of her children, was today sentenced to prison for 27 months in an unrelated federal case.
The defendant, 23-year-old Khusen Akhmedov, played a key role in a multi-defendant, $1.7-million Medicare fraud (see related stories).
Prosecutor M. Beth Leahy says Akhmedov was an ambulance driver for Penn Choice, helping to recruit patients who did not need the service.
"Akhmedov himself, as an EMT, transported one patient who actually sat in the front of the ambulance and smoked cigarettes the entire time he was being transported," Leahy tells KYW Newsradio. "And then Penn Choice would submit claims to Medicare as though he needed ambulance transport, which obviously is completely bogus."
Akhmedov was already cooperating in this case when, Philadelphia authorities allege, he took part in a drag race that ended in that horrific crash on Roosevelt Boulevard (see related story).
Akhmedov's attorney says his client has accepted responsibility for that crash and they are trying to work out a plea deal that would avoid a life sentence.
