A Houston man has been sentenced to 75 months in federal prison after being convicted of leading a Medicare fraud scheme involving falsified medical records. Paul Njoku, 64, was found guilty on all counts by a jury after less than two hours of deliberation following a three-day trial.
U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett also ordered Njoku to serve two years of supervised release after his prison term. The court highlighted Njoku’s significant role in the conspiracy when issuing the sentence.
Njoku owned and operated Opnet Health Care Services Inc., which did business as P & P Health Care Services, serving as both owner and CEO.
Testimony during the trial revealed that Njoku and others working under his direction forged signatures of doctors and nurses. According to witnesses, they cut out old signatures and taped them onto new documents such as doctors’ orders, nursing notes, and assessments required by Medicare for payment approval. These falsified records were then submitted to Medicare in response to requests for documentation.
One registered nurse who left Opnet in 2017 had her signature used without consent on nursing notes and assessments in subsequent years. Another witness testified that Njoku bribed a doctor to approve home health services.
Between 2015 and 2019, Opnet billed Medicare for over $400,000 in claims related to home health services and received more than $360,000 in payments. Many claims lacked proper documentation at the time they were submitted; records were later falsified to support these claims.
A representative testified during the trial that “Medicare would not have paid these claims had Medicare known there was no documentation or that they were based on falsified records.”
The defense argued another individual was responsible for the fraud, but jurors rejected this claim.
Njoku has been allowed to remain free on bond until he voluntarily surrenders to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility at a later date.
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 prosecuted the case.
“U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei announced the conviction.”
