Six Sentenced in Virginia for Stealing $10 Million From Medicaid; Three Home Health Owners Get 120, 96 and 72 Months
On March 17, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia announced that six defendants from a Virginia home health agency were sentenced in U.S. District Court in Lynchburg, Virginia, for stealing $10 million from the Virginia Medicaid system over six years by submitting false claims for services that were never provided. Of the three owners, Carolyn Bryant-Taylor was sentenced to 120 months, Kafomdi Josephine Okocha to 96 months, and Samuel Okocha to 72 months; three additional defendants, Eno Utuk, Elizabeth Ilome and Shekita Gore, were each sentenced to probation. The court also ordered the defendants to pay restitution totaling $10 million to Virginia Medicaid.
According to court documents, the three owners operated 1st Adult N Pediatric Healthcare Service, a Medicaid-enrolled home health agency providing private duty nursing, personal care and respite care services throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, including in the Western District. Gore was the director of nursing, while Utuk and Ilome were employed by the agency to provide nursing and personal care.
Between 2017 and 2023, the defendants conspired to submit false claims to Medicaid for services not provided, falsifying records and documentation in support of the claims. Bryant-Taylor and Josephine Okocha arranged to pay the parents or guardians of patients in exchange for blank, signed nursing notes, which were then filled out and used to support billing; the amounts billed either reflected nursing services that were not provided at all, or far more than was actually provided. The conspirators acknowledged that the actual loss to the Medicaid program from the fraudulent billing was $10,000,000.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Virginia Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia.
Source: U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于美国华盛顿的美国卫生与公众服务部休伯特·汉弗莱大楼外景（资料照片），医疗补助由该部与各州共同管理。ajay_suresh 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons；联邦固定图库。 / Photo: The Hubert H. Humphrey Building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in Washington, D.C. (file photo); Medicaid is jointly administered by the department and the states. Photo by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; federal fixed image library.
