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According to the United States Attorney’s Office Eastern District of New York, nine therapists were charged with stealing $3 million from the New York State Early Intervention Program (EIP), which is a program that provides services to children from infants to age 3 who experience developmental delays.
The stolen money reportedly included "more than $993,000 from Medicaid and more than $1,998,000 from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene."
The Long Islanders charged are:
- Kikelomo Ogundiran, age 54, of Dix Hills,
- Jeanette Monclova, age 69, of North Bellmore,
- Margaret Dominique-Mclain, age 54, of Mastic.
The US Attorney's Office said all of the EIP therapists were arrested on Tuesday, Oct. 26.
“As alleged, the defendants exploited disabled infants and toddlers, the youngest and most vulnerable among us, to enrich themselves by millions of dollars,” United States Attorney Breon Peace. “This Office and our law enforcement partners will continue to vigorously protect government programs from fraud and abuse that not only hurts taxpayers, but also deprives developmentally delayed children from receiving much-needed services.”
The therapists are accused of robbing more than 200 children from New York City of the essential services.
The defendants are accused of submitting fraudulent documentation for thousands of therapy sessions that never happened between Jan. 1, 2015, and June 30, 2019, according to the US Attorney's Office.
This deprived the infants and toddlers of the EIP therapy sessions they were entitled to and allowed the defendants to receive millions of dollars for the therapy sessions that did not take place, the US Attorney's Office said.
For example, the US Attorney's Office said evidence showed that Ogundiran billed for at least 300 EIP therapy sessions during periods of time when her travel records reflected that she was not in New York.
The US Attorney's Office said the following therapists were also arrested and charged:
- Marsiste Adolphe, age 58, of Brooklyn
- Mercedes Falcon, age 57, of Brooklyn
- Manuel Moore, age 36, of Manhattan
- Roselee Johnson, age 73, of Brooklyn
- Tracy Gibson, age 37, of Queens
- Dino Paolicelli, age 58, of Staten Island
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