Federal prosecutors charge 7 Long Island residents in $2.75 billion nationwide Medicare, Medicaid fraud case

Seven Long Islanders were among those arrested in a nationwide enforcement action targeting Medicare and Medicaid fraud, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Noman Ahmed, 37, of Port Jefferson Station; Adnan “Eddie” Arshad, 45, of Mount Sinai; Rehman Diwan, 24, of Hicksville; Jessica Hendrickson, 36, of Patchogue; Mohammed Saleem, 38, of Dix Hills; Faisal “Jimmy” Shamsi, 44, of Massapequa; and Waqas “Ricky” Shamsi, 44, of Massapequa, were indicted on eight criminal charges, including conspiracy to commit health care fraud, paying health care kickbacks and money laundering, federal prosecutors said.

Their attorneys could not be immediately be reached for comment.

Since 2020, the defendants allegedly owned, operated and worked for transportation companies where they carried out the scams throughout the state, federal prosecutors said.

While employed, prosecutors said, the defendants paid Medicaid beneficiaries to order medical transportation services (including transportation to addiction treatment centers for methadone treatments) specifically from the defendants. However, the defendants generally did not provide the medical transportation services ordered by the Medicaid beneficiaries, authorities said.

According to a news release, the defendants and their companies “fraudulently billed Medicaid millions of dollars for these services throughout the course of the scheme.” Some of the claims were submitted to Medicaid on behalf of individuals who were dead, hospitalized or incarcerated, federal prosecutors said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Toporovsky of the Criminal Section of the Eastern District of New York's Long Island Division and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Milito are prosecuting the government's case.

“It does not matter if you are a trafficker in a drug cartel or a corporate executive or medical professional employed by a health care company, if you profit from the unlawful distribution of controlled substances, you will be held accountable,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “The Justice Department will bring to justice criminals who defraud Americans, steal from taxpayer-funded programs, and put people in danger for the sake of profits.”

The announcement resulted from the office’s two-week-long effort to investigate more than $2.75 billion in alleged false billing to government programs. Nearly a dozen New Yorkers were charged with the schemes this week, though almost 200 have been implicated throughout the country. The Department of Justice has since seized over $231 million in cash, luxury vehicles, gold and other assets in connection with the enforcement action.

“These defendants have been charged with treating the Medicare and Medicaid programs like cash registers they could use to ring up withdrawals from the public treasury straight into their pockets,” said Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “The enforcement actions announced today demonstrate my office’s resolve to prosecute those who exploit our health care benefits programs for personal gain.”