Authorities investigating allegations of a Medicaid scam involving doctors and others in New York City recall coming across something curious in a lower floor of a clinic: stacks of shoeboxes containing cheap, off-brand sneakers, boots and sandals in a variety of sizes.
Downstairs was “like a shoe store,” Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said last week during a news conference. “How many clinics have that?”
Prosecutors say the footwear stockpile was further proof the clinic was part of a ring that used shoe giveaways to lure poor people into a scheme that cheated Medicaid out of nearly $7 million over a two-year period. An investigation revealed last week resulted in healthcare fraud, money laundering and other charges against 23 people, including nine physicians.
According to court papers, the ring used recruiters to approach people—referred to as “guinea pigs” by the purported ringleader—outside homeless shelters, soup kitchens and welfare centers. The people were offered free shoes if they could produce a valid Medicaid card and agreed to be taken by van to one of five clinics in Brooklyn and the Bronx, according to the documents. —Associated Press
