OAKLAND – Javed Wahab pleaded guilty today to theft of government property in connection with a scheme to steal funds designed to aid medical providers in the treatment of patients suffering from COVID-19, announced U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) San Francisco Regional Office Special Agent in Charge Steven J. Ryan. The Hon. Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, U.S. District Judge, accepted the plea.
According to court documents, Wahab, 53, formerly of Pleasanton, admitted he owned Premier Home Health Care & Hospice, Inc., Carelink Hospice Services, Inc., and JW Healthcare, Inc, each providing home health and hospice care in Alameda County, and elsewhere. Together, the three businesses received approximately $285,000 designated for the medical treatment and care of COVID-19 patients. Wahab admitted he stole $186,516.72 of these funds by spending them for his personal use and by transferring them to family members, rather than using the funds in conjunction with pandemic relief efforts as required.
The charges against Wahab resulted from his intentional misuse of funds distributed from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act Provider Relief Fund, money specially apportioned by the CARES Act to help health care providers who were financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to provide care to patients who were suffering from COVID-19, and to compensate providers for the cost of that care. These funds were critical to delivering relief to health care providers and maintaining access to medical care during the pandemic.
On September 1, 2021, a federal grand jury indicted Wahab, charging him with five counts of theft of government property, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641. Pursuant to today’s plea agreement, Wahab pleaded guilty to one count. If Wahab complies with the plea agreement, the remaining counts will be dismissed at sentencing.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers scheduled Wahab’s sentencing for August 25, 2022. Wahab faces a maximum statutory prison term of 10 years. In addition, as part of a sentence, the court may order a fine of up to $250,000, restitution, and up to three years of supervised release. However, any sentence will be imposed by the court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Lloyd-Lovett of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and Trial Attorney Shankar Ramamurthy of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.
This case was brought following an investigation by HHS-OIG.
The case was brought in coordination with the Health Care Fraud Unit’s COVID-19 Interagency Working Group, which is chaired by the National Rapid Response Strike Force and organizes efforts to address illegal activity involving health care programs during the pandemic.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.