A 43-year-old Indian national Yogesh K Pancholi, residing in Northville, Michigan, has been sentenced to nine years in prison on Tuesday (Jan 30) for orchestrating a nearly $2.8 million health care fraud. The case involved aggravated identity theft, money laundering, and witness tampering, as per US State Department.
Pancholi, who owned and operated Shring Home Care Inc. (Shring), a home health company based in Livonia, Michigan, was found guilty of using deceptive practices to conceal his ownership. He was excluded from billing Medicare but Pancholi manipulated the system by purchasing Shring using the names, signatures, and personal identifying information of others.
According to court documents and trial evidence, Pancholi and his co-conspirators engaged in fraudulent billing, racking up nearly $2.8 million in Medicare payments for two months of services that were never provided.
The illicitly obtained funds were then transferred through bank accounts linked to shell corporations and eventually funneled into Pancholi’s accounts in India.
Witness tampering
Facing indictment and on the eve of trial, Pancholi, operating under a pseudonym, attempted to obstruct justice by sending false and malicious emails to federal government agencies. The emails alleged that a government witness had committed various crimes. Pancholi did this to prevent the witness from testifying in court.
In September 2023, a federal jury in the Eastern District of Michigan convicted Pancholi on multiple charges, including conspiracy to commit healthcare and wire fraud, two substantive counts of health care fraud, money laundering, aggravated identity theft, and witness tampering.
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The case was thoroughly investigated by the FBI Detroit Field Office and Office of Inspector General, US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-OIG). Moreover, trial attorneys Shankar Ramamurthy and Andres Almendarez of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.
(With inputs from agencies)
