Houston Dental Clinic Employee Sentenced to 6 Years for Multimillion-Dollar Medicaid Fraud Scheme

A Houston dental clinic employee has been sentenced to six years in prison for his involvement in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, led by Alamdar S. Hamdani, announced that 54-year-old Ifeanyi Ozoh was convicted of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and related charges, as per details obtained by the

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The case, which resulted in Ozoh’s conviction on February 14 following a three-day trial and brief jury deliberation, exposed the illegal practices involved in the healthcare fraud scheme. Evidence presented during the trial showed that Ozoh was a key figure in orchestrating the kickback scheme while employed at Floss Family Dentalcare Center from January 2020 to February 2021. In addition to a 72-month prison sentence, Ozoh was ordered to pay $4.9 million in restitution to Medicaid.

Ozoh’s scheme involved paying marketers between $20 and $100 to refer Medicaid-insured children to the dental center, where many of the billed services were not actually provided. The operation included secret cash transactions, with bribes sometimes placed atop a vending machine to avoid detection. Despite being warned about the illegal nature of these actions, Ozoh continued to participate, distributing over $163,000 in bribes to marketers and receiving substantial financial bonuses.

Floss Family Dentalcare’s earnings, totaling more than $4 million from Medicaid claims, resulted from the kickback scheme led by Ozoh. If not halted, this scheme could have continued to improperly divert funds from a system intended to support those in need. The case highlights the importance of Medicaid’s prohibition on kickbacks for medical referrals, a rule that Ozoh violated. The investigation that brought the scheme to light was a joint effort by the FBI, Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathryn Olson and Lauren Valenti.

While awaiting the start of his prison sentence, Ozoh has been granted bond and will voluntarily surrender to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

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