LOS ANGELES – A South Bay woman was found guilty today of nearly two dozen felonies for billing Medicare more than $24 million by submitting fraudulent claims for medically unnecessary durable medical equipment – mostly power wheelchairs (PWC) – and PWC repairs, many of which were never performed.
Tamara Yvonne Motley, 54, a.k.a. “Tamara Ogembe,” of Redondo Beach, was found guilty by a federal jury of 20 counts of health care fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Following the reading of the guilty verdicts, United States District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. remanded Motley into custody.
According to evidence presented at her five-day trial, from July 2006 to August 2014, Motley was the de facto owner of the Hawthorne-based Action Medical Equipment and Supplies. From January 2013 to November 2016, Motley was the de facto owner of the Ventura-based Kaja Medical Equipment & Supply. Both companies were enrolled with Medicare in the names of Motley’s out-of-state relatives.
Motley orchestrated a scheme in which she paid marketers for patient referrals and then directed them to take patients to corrupt physicians, who prescribed medically unnecessary durable medical equipment, such as PWCs, that Motley’s companies used to submit fraudulent bills to Medicare.
In January 2011, when Medicare changed the reimbursement rules for PWCs to make the upfront payments less lucrative to suppliers, Action switched to...
Although on appeal the court distinguished that there was new information in the claim, the court ultimately found the new information was not material, nor was it plead with particularity. The U....