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Toronto police say they arrested Leonard Nwafor on an extradition warrant in the Canadian city on Wednesday.
TORONTO -- An American fugitive convicted in a $1-million health-care fraud scheme in California was arrested Wednesday in Canada.
Police said Leonard Nwafor was detained on an extradition warrant at his Toronto residence. The U.S. Marshals Service contacted Toronto authorities in August to seek their help in finding Nwafor and issued the extradition warrant last month.
Nwafor was convicted on two counts related to health-care fraud for submitting false claims to Medicare through his Los Angeles-based company in 2008. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, most of the claims were for power wheelchairs costing up to $7,000 each that were not required by patients.
Federal prosecutors said he made more than $1.1 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, the U.S. government's health-care program for the elderly and disabled, and received more than $500,000 in payments.
Nwafor fled California after the conviction. In 2010, he was sentenced in absentia to nine years in prison and ordered to pay more than $500,000 in restitution and $25,000 in fines.
He was also ordered to forfeit more than $500,000 in stolen funds to the U.S. government.
Full international coverage from NBC News
Authorities believe he had been living in Canada since he fled.
Nwafor was also wanted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which had placed him among its 10 most-wanted fugitives.
The agency charges that Nwafor opened fraudulent credit card accounts in Arizona and used the cards in Southern California.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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Leave a Comment:
What a surprise, another idiot ripping of the unaccountable bloated system. The real shame is that we apparently buy 7000- dollar chairs for anyone who sees one of those commercials on TV.
This country is broken...
They want him back to make him a Congressman!
JonFromWoodbridge, you are dreaming...or just uninformed. Here is the problem you seem to have missed. The problem with Obamacare that no one wants to admit is all healthcare first starts with having a medical professional, i.e., a doctor. Most all of my friends are doctors and they are preparing to leave the profession because it will no longer be profitable. They became doctors so they could make the big bucks, but Obamacare removes that incentive. Also, few new doctors are going to enter the profession for the same reason. Medical schools in the U.S. will be virtually empty. If you can find a doctor after Obamacare takes full effect, expect to find them from Mexico, India, Nigeria and so on. And with so few of them, expect to wait months just to get an appointment. Obama is destroying a medical system that people from all over the world come here for critical medical care. With this system gone, where will they go? Where will you go?
The stupidity of the American voter has reached a new low. Sure, there has been Medicare fraud. And for some reason people think that fraud will end with Obamacare? It will just get worse...much worse.
Untrue...people all over the world come here because the American healthcare system is awash in money. Enough money to do cutting-edge surgeries and procedures that more efficiently-run systems aren't able to do.
Not saying Obamacare is the best solution, but if we don't find someway to provide healthcare (something that is NOT a choice in most people's lives) to the majority of our citizens, than what does that say about our country? Your solution leaves only a minority able to afford healthcare while the rest go without. That doesn't work either.
We need more Doctors who care and are not in it only for the money. In case you haven't noticed. Most doctors that I have found here (in the 4 states I have lived in) are now from other countries. I have never had so many misdiagnosisses and errors during surgeries. It is not a nationality issue for why this is. We need to only allow doctors who school here, work here. Maybe, just maybe less money will mean less of a price to learn how to be a doctor (doubtfull). Then maybe.......doctors might care for thier patients again. PS: I know there are some doctors who do truelly care. I exclude them on my comment.
Brink. All of your Doctor Friends are leaving there practices? What are they going to do to rip us off, there are only so many Senators and Represenatives seats. They cant ALL run for office and become crooks in our Government.
The problem is that there are not enough Doctors becoming Lawmakers. Then, we would not have been in such a mess. The slimeball Lawyers are the ones who stand for Congress/Senate and they make laws to protect and increase their income, and screw the rest of us.
I am glad Leonard Nwafor was caught. I also feel politicians and anyone scamming us should be caught. Also, to pay it back and be punished.
oh wow, a freakin nigerian... how shocking.
Obama says "If my brother was running a business, he would look just like this brother."
Lets not forget that the company run by the current Fla Gov was convicted of the largest Medicare fraud in history!
. . Medicare was supposed to help save seniors money - - till the republicans got involved.
George Bush re-wrote medicare part "b" ( big pharma loves him )
In the last three years my prescrption costs were $125.00 - now that I'm covered by Medicare and part"b" - - part "b" sent me a bill for 299.40 - without even saying it would cover me for how long.......so withour part "b" is costs me in real money $5.00 a month and part "b" UNKNOWN/. . . . big saving
without Medicare healthcare companies didn't want to know me......now every creep comes out of the woodwork
. . . . PLEASE EXPLAIN - - WHAT YOU ARE CALLING..... F R A U D ????
How true
The politicians must laugh with delight when they can read so many stupid posts in one place and think to themselves ... "Yeah, we've got 'em" ...
Wow. A crime using intelligence instead of using a knife or gun. Not bad for a black guy.
Who cares these are like gang bangers 100 more behind him and cost 100g's a year to imprison him. The chip is coming part of health care legislation. Don't want it may lose banking privileges all tied together when all is said and done.
It's really an indictment on medicare that this was ever allowed to happen. They need much better internal controls.
"They need much better internal controls."
The only possible way to accomplish that would be to get it out from under gov control and privatize it with another seperate private entity put in place as an internal affairs division. Gov IS the biggest scam going. They are the reason this whole ball of wax is so screwed up it is beyond repair.
Some people will do anything to avoid going to work everyday.
So whats the differance with this man defrauding the system compared to the Pharmacies & Doctors offices defrauding the system?
I guess the answer would be that they just have'nt been caught yet. Even though the Govt allows it and has approved it, next they'll make it a law.
It is well known that Medicare descend on Doctors' offices, and rakes up 1-2 billing errors, made due to the everchanging and confusing Medicare rules. Then they extrapolate that on the whole practice. So, if they found 1 error in the 10 charts they checked, they say that there will be 100 errors in the 1000 pts. So, they ask them to repay 10% of all the payments they received for several years; then they fine them 3-4 times that amount! Several good practices have folded, due to the genuine mistake of some junior billing clerk. They will not go against the real thieves-- the Big Pharma and the equipment suppliers, as they get enormous amounts of riches from their powerful lobbies.
It was a standing joke amongst the doctors, that whenever Medicare feels a pinch, they will descend on more doctors' practices! Well, it is a joke no more. When Medicare is paying less and less, and making more rules, so they can find a reason not to pay, large number of doctors are planning to say, enough is enough, and stop seeing Medicare patients altogether.
this is the one person that our inept gov't caught --- how many more people commit fraud and never get caught? That is the problem with all these gov't welfare programs. It is just a free-for-all, grab what you can fire sale --- without these give aways gov't would have no power at all --- at least no power to manipulate and buy people's votes --- such a waste and a complete and obscene shame ---
LOL! Alinnj Just about the whole body of the U.S. government has committed fraud and gotten away with it at some time or another. The U.S. government is one of the most corrupt 'outfits' in existence but nobody wants to attack them. Why is that? Is it because you must receive the U.S. governments 'go-ahead' before you sue them? Is it because the U.S. government will 'make you disappear' if you bring attention to all of her crimes and shenanigans against her own people?
Yep. Reimburse for those power chairs without question.
Let's turn over our entire health care system to these guys. They've got the answers.
This is EXACTLY what should be looked into and stopped!! Also stop the welfare scammers! Nevermind the fiscal cliff!!!
If this guy had been Mexican they would have ben sure to say he was a "naturalized " citizen. This guy is black thus no mention of his Nigerian background. These are the folks behind the biggest ongoing fraud on the Internet, the Nigerian Letter.
Right O Dick
Rick Scott is a criminal and a POS Governor.
Pink Slip Rick !!!!!!!!!!!
This guy is the tip of the iceberg. Insufficient oversight of Medicare and numerous government programs is breaking this country.
ARE breaking this country you illiterate, ARE breaking this country! Not IS breaking this country.
Where is he from with that name?
originally Nigerian
tribe: Igbo
occupation: convicted Felon
address: Lock-up california
Geez man, the guy looks too stupid to breath. Looks CAN be decieving, I guess.
So it's illegal to scam the government but it's ok for the government to scam the people? Makes sense...
Medicare fraud up close stinks. Medicare was charged $80,000 for a sixs week stay in a hospital without a medical reason for her to be there. The hospital refused to let mom go home under the request of the legal guardian. Fraud at its worst. Medicare pays the bill first then mayby looks ito fraud. A$$ backward if you ask me. Fix the damn problem.
Uh! Really! What are you withholding here? No hospital can refuse to discharge a patient, unless the court has declared the person incapable of making their own judgment, and have declared all her so- called Legal guardians are harming her or working illegally to fraud her.
Why does this kind of thing get through the system at all?
Who's minding the store?
Actually you are supposed to be aware and turn in any false claims made by your doctors! You get the paperwork, yet you don't even bother to look at it I'll bet! Just toss it into the wastebasket and look the other way - too much trouble, right?
This is exactly how you can expect them to behave when they haven't had a good hard whipping since 1865.
@Fourteen Words
I got 14 words for you.
Whip my a55 if you think you can you scary a55 little racist pu55y!
Since I know you won't come looking for me, you can just try this instead. Walk out your door and find the first black man you see between the age of 20 and 40 and try to whip them. I'll keep and eye on the news-vines to see if you tried it or not. If I see a story about a white guy being beaten to death and found with a stick shoved up his a55, I'll know you tried.