Medical equipment suppliers sentenced to federal prison
U. S. Attorney Richard Roper announced on Tuesday that Grand Prairie resident Friday Udo Johnny, the owner of Metropolitan Home Medical Equipment, was sentenced to 37 months in prison and ordered to pay $458,541.67 in restitution to the Medicare program by U. S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay.
In September, Johnny pled guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and pay illegal remunerations. In October, his co-defendant Emmanuel “Bob” Edet, of Mesquite pled guilty of the same offense.
Johnny and Edet admitted that from September 2002 through August 2003 they participated in a scheme to submit fraudulent claims to Medicare for payment of power wheelchairs and accessories. With the assistance of Dr. Lloyd McGriff, M.D., who is already serving a 16 month sentence for his role, Johnny and Edet submitted more than $1.7 million in claims to Medicare. Medicare paid Johnny and Edet $904,946.62 for the fraudulent claims.
Roper said that this case is the latest conviction from Operation Rollover involving durable medical equipment fraud.
