Nicholas J. Ganjei United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas | U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas
A Houston man has been found guilty of orchestrating a Medicare fraud scheme involving falsified medical records. U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei announced the conviction of 64-year-old Paul Njoku, who was convicted on all charges after a three-day trial and less than two hours of jury deliberation.
Njoku owned Opnet Health Care Services Inc., operating as P & P Health Care Services, where he served as owner and CEO. The court heard testimony that Njoku and his associates forged signatures of doctors and nurses by cutting out old signatures and attaching them to new documents required for Medicare payments.
Evidence presented during the trial revealed that Njoku continued using the signature of a registered nurse who left Opnet in 2017 without her consent through 2018 and 2019. Additionally, it was disclosed that Njoku bribed a doctor to approve home health services.
Between 2015 and 2019, Opnet billed over $400,000 to Medicare for home health services, receiving more than $360,000 despite lacking proper documentation for many claims. A representative testified that Medicare would not have paid these claims if aware they were based on falsified records.
U.S. Attorney Ganjei stated: “It is absolutely paramount that Americans—both as patients and as taxpayers—have confidence in the integrity of medical providers that receive Medicare funds. Here, the defendant unrepentantly abused that trust by engaging in bribery and stealing from Medicare.” He added that the Southern District of Texas aims to restore lost trust with this guilty verdict.
Despite defense attempts to shift blame onto another individual, the jury found Njoku guilty as charged. U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett presided over the trial and will set sentencing at a later date. Njoku faces up to 10 years for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, five years for false statements relating to healthcare matters, two years for identity theft (served consecutively), along with potential fines totaling $250,000 per count.
Njoku remains on bond pending sentencing.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI, Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General, and Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christian Latham and Kathryn Olson are prosecuting the case.
