Los Angeles, California - An Inglewood woman and her mother-in-law, who both ran a South Los Angeles drug and alcohol abuse treatment program, each pleaded guilty today to a health care fraud charge for fraudulently submitting more than $500,000 in claims for services that did not qualify for reimbursement or were never provided.
Mesbel Mohamoud, 47, and her mother-in-law, Erlinda Abella, 66, also of Inglewood, pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud in separate hearings before United States District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez.
Mohamoud was the owner and executive director of The New You Center Inc. (TNYC), located in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood of South Los Angeles. Abella, who co-founded TNYC with Mohamoud in 2005, was the company’s program director. TNYC had contracts to provide medically necessary substance abuse treatment services through the Drug Medi-Cal program to adults and teenagers in Los Angeles County.
According to Mohamoud’s and Abella’s plea agreements, from January 2009 to December 2015, TNYC submitted false and fraudulent bills for counseling sessions that were not conducted at all, were not conducted at authorized locations, or did not comply with Drug Medi-Cal regulations regarding the length of sessions or the number of clients.
Mohamoud and Abella also allegedly caused TNYC to bill for clients who did not have a substance abuse problem, to falsify documents related to services supposedly provided to clients, and to forge client signatures on documents such as sign-in sheets.
For example, in September 2013, TNYC submitted a fraudulent claim for Medi-Cal reimbursement in the amount of $62.15 for a three-hour counseling session for a client on August 17, 2013 – the same day when the client was hospitalized and did not receive any counseling from TNYC.
In court documents, Mohamoud further admitted she knew that among the acts Abella directed TNYC counselors to engage in included enrolling clients in TNYC’s substance abuse treatment program even if the clients had used drugs or alcohol only occasionally or even just once.
Mohamoud and Abella admitted that TNYC submitted approximately $527,313 in false and fraudulent claims for group and individual substance abuse counseling services and was paid $260,101 on those claims.
Judge Gutierrez scheduled a January 25, 2021 sentencing hearing for Abella and a February 8, 2021 sentencing hearing for Mohamoud, at which time each of them will face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
The FBI, the California Department of Justice, Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General investigated this matter.
Assistant United States Attorney Cathy J. Ostiller of the Major Frauds Section is prosecuting this case.
