The pastor of a now defunct Los Angeles church who owned and operated several fraudulent durable medical equipment (DME) supply companies has been sentenced to 180 months in prison for his role in a USD14.2 million Medicare fraud scheme.

Christopher Iruke, 61, was also ordered to pay USD6.7 million in restitution, jointly and severally with his conspirators, by U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter of the Central District of California. In addition, Judge Hatter ordered Iruke to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.

In August 2011, a jury found Iruke and his wife, Connie Ikpoh, 49, and one of their employees, Aura Marroquin, guilty of conspiracy and health care fraud offences following a two-week trial in Los Angeles.

The Court was told that Iruke and Ikpoh were pastors at Arms of Grace Christian Centre, a church that operated from 5700 Crenshaw Boulevard in Los Angeles, where Iruke and Ikpoh also operated Pascon Medical Supply, a fraudulent DME supply company. Iruke and Ikpoh hired several of their parishioners at Arms of Grace to assist them in running Pascon and another fraudulent DME supply company, Horizon Medical Equipment and Supply Inc. Horizon was owned by Ikpoh, who also worked as a nurse at two Los Angeles-area hospitals.

Prosecutors said that Iruke, Ikpoh, Marroquin, and their conspirators used fraudulent prescriptions and documents that Iruke purchased from a number of illicit sources to bill Medicare for expensive, high-end power wheelchairs and orthotics that were medically unnecessary or never provided. These power wheelchairs cost approximately USD900 per wheelchair wholesale, but were billed to Medicare at a rate of approximately USD6,000 per wheelchair.

Evidence introduced at trial established that when it appeared to Iruke that he would have to close Pascon due to an audit by Medicare, Iruke convinced his sister, Jummal Joy Ibrahim, and a member of Arms of Grace to allow him to use their names and identities to open two new fraudulent DME supply companies. These companies, Contempo Medical Equipment Inc. and Ladera Medical Equipment Inc., also operated from Los Angeles. After Pascon and Horizon closed, Iruke and his conspirators continued to operate the fraud scheme from Contempo and Ladera.

Witnesses who sold fraudulent prescriptions and documents to Iruke testified that they and others paid cash kickbacks to street-level marketers to offer Medicare beneficiaries free power wheelchairs and other DME in exchange for the beneficiaries’ Medicare card numbers and personal information. These witnesses testified that they and their associates used this information to create fraudulent prescriptions and medical documents which they sold to Iruke and the operators of other fraudulent DME supply companies for USD1,100 to USD1,500 per prescription.

The evidence at trial showed that Iruke and Ikpoh diverted most of this money from the bank accounts of the supply companies to pay for the fraudulent prescriptions and documents which Iruke purchased to further the scheme and to cover the leases on their Mercedes vehicles, home remodelling expenses and other personal expenses.

The court heard that Iruke took extensive efforts to conceal the fraud scheme and his involvement with the companies. One witness who worked at the companies testified that Iruke directed her and Marroquin to lie to State and Medicare inspectors about his involvement with Contempo and Ladera when the inspectors visited the companies.

Ikpoh is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 27, 2012. Vasquez and Ibrahim pleaded guilty to conspiracy and false statement charges in February 2011 and March 2011, respectively, and are awaiting sentencing. On Dec. 9, 2011, Judge Hatter sentenced Marroquin to time served and three years of supervised release.

Source: FBI LA