WASHINGTON – Joseph Tamjong, 51, of Lanham, Maryland, pleaded responsible at present to defrauding the D.C. Medicaid program out of $733,405.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Criminal Division, Maureen R. Dixon, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General for the area that features Washington, D.C., and Daniel W. Lucas, Inspector General for the District of Columbia.
Tamjong pleaded responsible within the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to well being care fraud, which carries a statutory most penalty of 10 years in jail. Under federal sentencing pointers, Tamjong faces a possible beneficial sentence of between 27 and 33 months in jail. He has agreed to pay $733,405 in restitution and $396,155 in a forfeiture cash judgment. The Honorable Christopher R. Cooper, who accepted Tamjong’s responsible plea, scheduled sentencing for March 7, 2023.
In court docket paperwork, Tamjong admitted that between December 2014 and February 2022, he was employed as a Personal Care Aide and/or a Participant-Directed Worker to supply private care aide providers to residents of the District of Columbia who wanted help performing actions of every day residing, corresponding to getting out and in of mattress, bathing, dressing, and consuming. Tamjong admitted that he submitted false timesheets that claimed he offered these private care providers when in truth he didn’t.
As a part of his scheme, he even prompted Medicaid to be billed for about 3,400 hours of providers that he purportedly offered when he truly was touring internationally. On 156 separate events, he additionally prompted Medicaid to be billed for twenty-four hours of providers that he allegedly offered in in the future.
The FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, the District of Columbia’s Office of the Inspector General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are dedicated to investigating and prosecuting people who defraud the D.C. Medicaid program.
Tamjong is the twelfth former private care aide since August 2018 to plead responsible to defrauding Medicaid within the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Six of these aides had been sentenced to 13 months in jail; a seventh and eighth had been sentenced respectively to fifteen months and 10 months.
The authorities urges the general public to supply tips and help to cease well being care fraud. If you may have details about people committing well being care fraud, please name the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General hotline at (800) HHS‑TIPS [(800) 447-8477] or the D.C. Office of the Inspector General at (800) 724-TIPS [(800) 274-8477].
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kondi Kleinman with help from Paralegal Specialist Michon Tart.
