Home Health Company Owner Jailed for Multi Million-Dollar Medicare Fraud

An Indian national will be spending the next nine years in prison for orchestrating a nearly $2.8 million healthcare fraud and wire fraud scheme.

Yogesh K. Pancholi, 43, of Northville, Mich., used the names, signatures, and personal identifying information of others to purchase Livonia, Mich.-based Shring Home Care Inc. and conceal his ownership, according to court documents and evidence presented at trial. Despite being excluded from billing Medicare, Pancholi purchased Shring; in a two-month period, Pancholi and his co-conspirators billed and were paid nearly $2.8 million by Medicare for services that were never provided. Pancholi then transferred these funds through shell companies’ bank accounts and eventually into his own accounts in India.

Shortly before his trial began last year, Pancholi—using a pseudonym—wrote false and malicious emails to various U.S. government agencies that alleged a government witness had committed various crimes and should not be allowed to remain in the United States. Pancholi wrote the emails to keep the witness from testifying against him, the U.S. Justice Department said. 
 
In September 2023, a federal jury in the Eastern District of Michigan convicted Pancholi of conspiracy to commit healthcare and wire fraud, two substantive counts of healthcare fraud, two counts of money laundering, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of witness tampering.
 
Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Special Agent in Charge Cheyvoryea “Shea” Gibson of the FBI Detroit Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Mario Pinto of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) made the announcement.
 
The FBI Detroit Field Office and HHS-OIG investigated the case.
 
Trial Attorneys Shankar Ramamurthy and Andres Almendarez of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.
 
The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat healthcare fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,400 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $27 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, is taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in healthcare fraud schemes.