Two marketers, Elaine Antao and Manal Wasef, have accepted accountability for their roles in a Medicaid fraud scheme involving over $68 million, admitting to collusion in the illegal operations of multiple Brooklyn adult day cares and a home health care company. This admission of guilt took place in a federal court in Brooklyn, as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York.
According to the details disclosed in court documents, the offenses occurred between October 2017 and July 2024, with Antao and Wasef serving as recruiters for two social adult day cares and Responsible Care Staffing Inc., a fiscal intermediary which provides home health care. During the sentencing phase, they face a potential maximum imprisonment of 10 years each. The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Joseph Nocella, Jr., conveyed the office's commitment to prosecuting those who corruptly redirect patients in exchange for illicit revenue, undermining federal health programs.
The guilty parties indulged in buyoff schemes and went on to bill Medicaid for non-existent services, a costly deception that impacts real people — the vulnerable and the needy. These sentiments were echoed by Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva who emphasized the commitment to eradicating government health program fraud by prosecuting offenders to the full extent. These proceedings mark Wasef and Antao as the sixth and seventh individuals to plead guilty in this extensive case, a collective which seems to hold an unfettered resolve to exploit the health care system's vulnerabilities for their gain.
Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Naomi Gruchacz, highlighted the defendants' actions as an egregious manipulation of the system, jeopardizing essential federal health program funds. Meanwhile, Ricky J Patel, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York, underscored the importance of dogged law enforcement work in taking down schemes that leverage public welfare and harm the economy. The prosecution team is led by Trial Attorneys Patrick J. Campbell and Leonid Sandlar from the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant United States Attorney Michael Castiglione of the Asset Forfeiture Section of the Eastern District of New York.
