A Mount Sinai ambulette company owner was sentenced Tuesday to more than eight years in federal prison for helping steal more than $19 million from Medicaid through fraudulent transportation claims, federal prosecutors said.
Adnan Arshad, 47, also known as “Eddie,” was sentenced in federal court in Central Islip to 97 months in prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack also ordered Arshad to forfeit more than $19 million, including several properties and vehicles purchased with proceeds from the scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Arshad owned MTK Taxi LLC in Montauk and co-owned All-Star Taxi LLC in Ronkonkoma.
Prosecutors said Arshad and his co-conspirators paid illegal kickbacks to Medicaid beneficiaries in exchange for ordering transportation through their companies. Many of the trips were purportedly for methadone treatment at addiction treatment centers.
The companies generally did not provide the transportation services billed to Medicaid, prosecutors said. Fraudulent claims were submitted for rides involving people who were dead, hospitalized or incarcerated.
The scheme operated from approximately December 2020 until Arshad’s arrest in June 2024.
Arshad and his co-conspirators also directed beneficiaries to request transportation to addiction treatment centers in New York City, even though treatment centers were available on Long Island, according to court filings.
Beneficiaries were instructed to provide false pickup addresses that made the trips appear longer and increased the Medicaid reimbursement, prosecutors said.
The transportation companies owned or operated by Arshad and his co-conspirators billed Medicaid more than $16 million for trips to three addiction treatment centers in New York City.
Prosecutors said Arshad used the proceeds to purchase additional transportation vehicles and finance a lavish lifestyle that included multimillion-dollar homes, a Ferrari and multiple BMW and Mercedes vehicles.
“While taxpayers footed the bill, Arshad financed a lavish lifestyle with multimillion-dollar homes and luxury vehicles,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said the defendant billed Medicaid for transportation that never occurred and used money intended for people in need to enrich himself.
The investigation involved the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, IRS Criminal Investigation, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, the New York State Comptroller’s Office and the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the state Attorney General’s Office.
At least five of Arshad’s co-conspirators have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing, prosecutors said.
Photo: Americasroof, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
