A Hawthorne woman responsible for more than $7 million in fraudulent Medicare billings, mostly for expensive power wheelchairs, was found guilty Friday of 16 federal charges stemming from the health care fraud scheme.
Adeline Ekwebelem, 51, was convicted following a seven-day trial before U.S. Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald, who set a Dec. 15 sentencing hearing.
Ekwebelem was found guilty of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, a dozen counts of health care fraud and three counts of paying illegal kickbacks for health care referrals, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
She is the fifth person convicted in relation to the scheme run out of her Gardena-based Adelco Medical Distributors Inc.
Evidence presented during the trial showed that Adelco billed Medicare for medically unnecessary medical equipment for beneficiaries who were often recruited off the street.
Ekwebelem paid illegal kickbacks to people known as marketers to recruit those beneficiaries. She also paid kickbacks to a handful of complicit doctors in exchange for fraudulent prescriptions for the wheelchairs.
Those doctors included Dr. Charles Okoye, who pleaded guilty last month, and Dr. Uche Chukwudi, who fled after being indicted and is currently a fugitive, prosecutors said.
Three of Adelco’s marketers — Romie Tucker, Cindy Santana and Maritza Hernandez — have also pleaded guilty to receiving kickbacks from Ekwebelem.
Ekwebelem submitted more than $7 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and received nearly $3.5 million for those claims.
— City News Service