CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A federal grand jury in Charlotte has indicted two individuals on federal charges in connection with a scheme to obtain more than $15 million from the North Carolina Medicaid program, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
Joining U.S. Attorney King in making today’s announcement are Robert R. Wells, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division, Donald “Trey” Eakins, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, Charlotte Field Office (IRS-CI), and Attorney General Josh Stein, who oversees the North Carolina Medicaid Investigations Division (MID).
The indictment charges Donald Booker, 56, of Charlotte, and Delores Jordan, 53, of Louisville, Kentucky, with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering.
According to allegations contained in the indictment, Booker owned United Diagnostic Laboratories (UDL), a urine toxicology testing laboratory, and United Youth Care Services (UYCS), a company that provided mental health and substance abuse treatment services. Jordan owned Legacy Housing, a subsidized housing provider. The indictment alleges that from January 2016 to December 2020, Booker and his co-conspirators executed a conspiracy to defraud the North Carolina Medicaid program by paying illegal kickbacks to Jordan and other co-conspirators in exchange for urine samples from Medicaid-eligible beneficiaries.
The indictment alleges that Jordan and other co-conspirators recruited housing-vulnerable individuals and other Medicaid-eligible beneficiaries for housing and other programs and services. Once enrolled, the beneficiaries were required to submit urine specimens for drug testing as a condition of their participation in the program. The specimens were allegedly provided to UDL and UYCS for medically unnecessary urine drug testing. The indictment further alleges that Booker and his co-conspirators paid the recruiters a kickback from UYCS’s NC Medicaid reimbursement on the drug testing. It is also alleged that Booker and Jordan executed a conspiracy to launder the proceeds of the kickback and health care fraud conspiracy in order to conceal and disguise the nature and source of UYCS’s illegal kickback payments for drug testing referrals.
Booker and Jordan have been arrested by the FBI.
The charges in the indictment are allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
The FBI, IRS-CI, and NC Medicaid Investigations Division are in charge of the investigation.
The prosecution for the government is handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Graham Billings of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte.