United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that James Leonard Holt, 64, of Omaha, Nebraska, was sentenced today in Lincoln, Nebraska, to five years of probation by United States District Judge Lyle E. Strom, after pleading guilty to an information charging him with 9 counts of theft of public money. Additionally, Mr. Holt’s former business, Umoja, P.C., was also convicted on a one-count indictment charging health care fraud and sentenced to five years of probation. Both Mr. Holt and Umoja, P.C., were ordered to jointly pay $15,530.54 in restitution to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Medicaid and Long Term Care.
Holt has a masters degree in social work and was a licensed mental health counselor. Umoja, P.C., was incorporated in September of 2008 and both Holt and Umoja were enrolled providers with the Nebraska Medicaid Program. Between approximately September of 2009 and September of 2012, Holt and Umoja, P.C. fraudulently submitted claims and unlawfully took money by submitting the false claims to Nebraska Medicaid for reimbursement. These claims were purportedly for sessions of individual and family psychotherapy. The claims submitted by Holt and Umoja were false because the services for which the claims were made were not provided. During the course of the investigation, 231 false claims were discovered that had been submitted for reimbursement.
As a part of the plea agreements for both Holt and Umoja, they have agreed to an exclusion from participation in any federally-funded health care benefit program for a time period yet to be determined by the United States Department of Health & Human Services.
This case was investigated by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, and the Nebraska Department of Health & Human Services.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
