Two plead guilty to federal health care fraud charges

LOS ANGELES  – Two women pleaded guilty Tuesday to defrauding Medi-Cal by submitting more than $500,000 in false and fraudulent claims for substance abuse counseling services supposedly provided to girls residing at Dimondale Adolescent Care Facility group homes in Lancaster, Long Beach and Carson.

Mesbel Mohamoud, 47, and her mother-in-law, Erlinda Abella, 66, each pleaded guilty in separate hearings to a federal health care fraud count, under which they each face up to 10 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

A Jan. 25 sentencing hearing was set for Abella and a Feb. 8 hearing was scheduled for Mohamoud.

They were named in a 23-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in March 2018, charging both women with 21 counts of health care fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft stemming from the scheme that ran from 2009 through 2015.

Mohamoud was the owner and executive director of The New You Center, while her mother-in-law, who co-founded the now-defunct company, was the firm’s program director. TNYC had contracts to provide medically necessary substance abuse treatment services through the Drug Medi-Cal program to adults and teenagers in Los Angeles County.

TNYC submitted bogus bills for counseling sessions that were not conducted at all, were not conducted at authorized locations, or did not comply with Drug Medi-Cal regulations regarding the length of sessions or the number of patients, according to prosecutors.

Mohamoud and Abella caused TNYC to bill for clients who did not have a substance abuse problem, to falsify documents related to services supposedly provided to clients, and to forge client signatures on documents such as sign-in sheets, court documents show.

The charges primarily involve services provided to girls residing at Dimondale Adolescent Care Facility group homes in Lancaster, Long Beach and Carson — facilities where TNYC was not authorized to provide counseling. TNYC submitted more than $500,000 in false and fraudulent claims for group and individual substance abuse counseling services and was paid more than $260,000 on those claims, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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