A 43-year-old Indian national and owner of Livonia, a Michigan-based Shring Home Care Inc has been sentenced to nine years in prison for orchestrating a $2.8 million healthcare and wire fraud.
Yogesh K. Pancholi, was convicted by a federal jury in the Eastern District of Michigan in September 2023, on charges of money laundering, aggravated identity theft, and witness tampering.
Despite being excluded from billing Medicare, Pancholi concealed his ownership of Shring Home Care by using other people’s names and personal information. Over a two-month period, he and his co-conspirators billed and received payments from Medicare for services they never rendered.
The funds were being transferred to his accounts in India via shell corporations. The case, investigated by the FBI Detroit Field Office and HHS-OIG, was prosecuted by trial attorneys Shankar Ramamurthy and Andres Almendarez of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, along with Special Agents in Charge Cheyvoryea “Shea” Gibson of the FBI Detroit Field Office and Mario Pinto of HHS-OIG, announced Pancholi’s sentence.
In response to rising cases of fraud, the government has been investing extensively in preventative measures. The Fraud Section, spearheading the Health Care Fraud Strike Force program, has prosecuted over 5,400 defendants since March 2007, collectively charged with over $27 billion in fraudulent billings. At least nine strike forces are operating in 27 federal districts to prevent medical fraud.
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