Couple searched obituaries to carry out $13 million NC Medicaid scheme, feds say
A couple searched obituaries in their scheme to steal millions of dollars from the Medicaid program in North Carolina, officials say.
Latisha Harron, 44, and Timothy Mark Harron, 50, are facing federal charges after prosecutors say they bought high-end items with the money intended for low-income people or those with disabilities.
“The indictment alleges a $13 million fraud that funded a gluttonous, social media-marketed lifestyle — one filled with private jets, penthouses and luxury resorts,” U.S. Attorney Robert J. Higdon Jr. said Wednesday in a news release.
Requests for comment were sent to social media pages believed to belong to the Harrons and went unanswered as of Wednesday afternoon. The government’s court case website didn’t list attorneys for the couple.
Prosecutors say Latisha Harron as of 2010 was running “Agape Healthcare Systems, Inc... an alleged Medicaid home health provider” in Roanoke Rapids. The city is near the Virginia border and roughly 80 miles northeast of Raleigh.
Latisha Harron continued to bill North Carolina Medicaid after she moved to Maryland in 2012, officials say. Five years later, she moved to Nevada and started teaming with Timothy Harron, according to feds.
The Harrons “worked together to expand the Agape fraud upon NC Medicaid, by fraudulently billing the program for more than $10 Million, just in the period between 2017 and 2019,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina said in its news release.
To carry out the alleged scheme, prosecutors say the couple looked up funeral home postings to get details about people who recently died. If someone qualified for Medicaid, the Harrons used that person’s information to “back-bill” the North Carolina program, falsely claiming the person had received care at Agape before death, the federal government says.
The money went straight to the couple, who used it toward a $900,000 private jet, designer clothes and jewelry, and properties in Eastern North Carolina, according to the news release.
“This case represents one of the most brazen and egregious cases of home health Medicaid fraud ever seen in this district,” Higdon said in the release.
The Harrons, who live in Las Vegas, were indicted last week by a federal grand jury, according to officials. Prosecutors say the pair is facing multiple charges, including:
- “Conspiracy to Commit Health Care Fraud and Wire Fraud,”
- “Health Care Fraud,”
- “Wire Fraud,”
- “False Statements Relating to Health Care Matters,”
- “Aggravated Identity Theft,”
- “Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering,”
- “Conducting Transactions in Criminally Derived Property with Fraud and Money Laundering.”
This story was originally published May 27, 2020 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Couple searched obituaries to carry out $13 million NC Medicaid scheme, feds say."
