CHARLOTTE, N.C. — U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray announced Markuetric Stringfellow, 37, of Powder Springs, Georgia was sentenced to 78 months in prison and three years of supervised release after defrauding North and South Carolina Medicaid programs.
In addition, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell says Stringfellow will also have to pay $5,278,550 in restitution.
Detectives say in his North Carolina scheme, Stringfellow was a partner in Everlasting Vitality, LLC (EV) and Do-It-4-The Hood Corporation (D4H), a corporation that operates after-school programs in Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Rocky-Mount, North Carolina.
Investigators say January 7th, 2016 through November 12th, 2018 Stringfellow and co-conspirators made a plan to defraud the North Carolina Medicaid program by soliciting illegal kickbacks from different drug testing laboratories, in exchange for referrals of Medicaid beneficiaries in the state received through the after-school programs provided by EV and D4H.
Stringfellow and his co-conspirators paid people to recruit at-risk youths, most particularly those Medicaid eligible, for EV’s and D4H’s after-school programs, according to a news release.
Detectives say once these children were enrolled, they were required to submit urine specimens for drug testing, and Stringfellow and others conspired with certain laboratories to perform the drug testing of the urine samples to get kickbacks after the laboratories were reimbursed by the North Carolina Medicaid.
In addition, detectives say Stringfellow and others came up with a another fraud scheme against North Carolina Medicaid by referring clients to laboratories they knew would file fake claims and would be reimbursed based on drug testing services that did not meet the drug testing policy requirements.
Police say once North Carolina Medicaid paid the fake claims submitted by the testing labs, the labs then paid companies under the control of Stringfellow and his co-conspirators at an agreed percentage, for unauthorized and medically unnecessary drug tests.
Detectives say in the South Carolina scheme, Springfellow was the franchise owner of Wrights Care Services, LLC., a qualified provider of Medicaid rehabilitative behavioral services in the state.
Wrights Care, located in Columbia, South Carolina, services separate franchise locations across the state including in Spartanburg, Pickens, Cheraw, Society Hill, Bennettsville, Hartsville, and Conway, and in April of 2014 they became a provider in the South Carolina Medicaid program, according to a news release.
Detectives say since becoming an active provider, Wrights Care was allowed to submit claims for behavioral mentoring services that would be reimbursed under Medicaid, and in 2014 Springfellow and others defrauded the South Carolina Medicaid program by filing fake claims for services that were either not provided, partially provided, or did not qualify for reimbursement.
Police say Stringfellow and his co-conspirators submitted fake patient billing records and fake medical notes and attempted to deceive South Carolina Medicaid auditors.
Detectives say in March of 2015, Stringfellow and others met for a “note party” at Wrights Care, where they created fake billing records, forged signatures, and engaged in other criminal activity.
Stringfellow plead guilty to conspiracy to commit Medicaid fraud in connection to both federal cases on August 21st, 2020, according to a news release.
Detectives say Stringfellow will report to the federal Bureau of Prisons to serve his sentence at a designated facility.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray thanks the FBI in Charlotte, Columbia, and Atlanta, as well as the Medicaid Investigation Divisions in Raleigh, Columbia, and Atlanta for their help in this case.
