Siphoning to Related Entities is Fraud

The Times Union reported another fraud case. Contained in that lawsuit are multiple allegations that owner/operator Rozenberg and Hagler submitted misleading or false information to Department of Health regulators related to funding and ownership structures for some of their nursing homes.

They ignored and violated laws meant to protect nursing home residents and they pocketed millions of dollars that should have gone to patient care.

–Attorney General James said of the nursing facilities, which are located in Queens, the Bronx, Westchester County and Buffalo.

James accused two Centers Health Care executives of orchestrating “multiple fraudulent schemes” that siphoned millions from the state’s Medicaid program to enrich themselves, their business associates and also to purchase a flailing Israeli airline. She pointed to disturbing, graphic examples of hundreds of elderly residents forced to endure harmful conditions for years because of the company’s alleged role in woefully understaffing nursing homes.

James claimed that from 2013 to April 2022, Rozenberg, Hagler and multiple other LLCs and business associates in their network extracted tens of millions of dollars in Medicaid reimbursement funds as up-front profit from nursing homes they controlled, cutting staff expenses and paying low wages to do so. The breadth of the allegations include claims that Rozenberg and others filed false documents with the Department of Health to hide the amount of money they were transferring to themselves.