Minneapolis man charged with stealing $7.3 million in Medicaid fraud scheme
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A Minneapolis man is charged with stealing $7.3 million in a Medicaid fraud scheme.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed charges in Hennepin County this week. They allege 46-year-old Chavis Willis billed Medicaid through his company, 1-0 Granny’s Helpful Hands, for services it did not actually provide. The company claims to offer personal care assistance services — such as help dressing, bathing and eating — to people with mental illness and chemical dependency. It also operates group homes.
Investigators say the company doubled up on billing, saying it provided services for clients in their group homes while also billing for those same clients in other locations. They also say the company billed for services provided by care assistants who were no longer employed there.
Charges also allege Willis — who is barred from owning or operating a Medicaid-funded business because of a prior conviction of aiding and abetting murder — broke the law by listing his mother as the company’s owner. Prosecutors say Willis’ mother is a California resident who had little to no involvement.
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Investigators say they interviewed employees and reviewed messages sent by Willis indicating he was the owner. The complaint accuses Willis of forging his mother’s signature and impersonating her on phone calls to cover up his role in the business.
An employee who was also prohibited from working for a Medicaid-funded business because of a past conviction has already pleaded guilty to felony theft for her involvement with the company.
Willis faces charges of racketeering and theft for stealing millions of dollars between 2020 and 2021.
Ellison filed the charges after an investigation by his office’s Medical Fraud Control Unit and the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.
“When criminals defraud Medicaid, they are stealing money that should be providing health care to folks who are struggling financially,” Ellison said in a statement announcing the charges. “My office has a long record of success in holding Medicaid fraudsters accountable for cheating taxpayers and people in need, and we will keep doing so.”
In December, Ellison’s office filed charges for alleged Medicaid fraud against another provider of services at group homes. Prosecutors allege Evergreen Recovery billed for drug and alcohol counseling it didn’t actually provide.
That same month, the FBI raided autism centers in Minneapolis and St. Cloud, as part of a state investigation into to suspected Medicaid fraud. Charges have not been made in that case.
Both cases follow the high profile Feeding Our Future case, in which the nonprofit’s operator and dozens of associates are accused of stealing $250 million in federal nutrition dollars. The U.S. Department of Justice called the Minnesota case the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation.
Last week, Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order creating a new fraud investigations unit within the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He also says he’ll push lawmakers to stiffen penalties, expand the attorney general’s Medicaid fraud office, give agencies the ability to pause payments when they suspect fraud, and implement a pilot using artificial intelligence to spot potential fraud.
