Two more arrested in Medicaid fraud scheme

Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the Leon County Sheriff’s Office and the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office today announced the arrests of Danielle Richardson, 42, and Vickram Thakur, 50, in connection to a Medicaid fraud scheme. Richardson and Thakur are former employees of DS Connections, Inc., a targeted case management company headquartered in Winter Park, with offices in Clermont and Tallahassee. These two arrests are the ninth and tenth arrests of former DS Connections employees since January 2015 for Medicaid fraud.
According to the MFCU investigation, Richardson and Thakur caused thousands of dollars in unauthorized targeted case management services to be billed to the state’s Medicaid program.
Thakur is charged with one count of scheme to defraud less than $20,000. If convicted, Thakur faces up to five years in prison and $15,000 in fines and restitution. Richardson is charged with 10 counts of grand theft. If convicted, Richardson faces up to a hundred years in prison and $75,000 in fines and restitution.
The Attorney General’s Office will prosecute this case through an agreement with the State Attorney’s Office for the Second Judicial Circuit of Florida. The MFCU investigation is ongoing and more arrests are probable.
For more information about the previous arrests, click here, here and here.
The Florida Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigates and prosecutes providers that intentionally defraud the state’s Medicaid program through fraudulent billing practices. Medicaid fraud essentially steals from Florida’s taxpayers. From Jan. 2011 to the present, Attorney General Bondi’s MFCU has obtained more than $689 million in settlements and judgments. Additionally, the MFCU investigates allegations of patient abuse, neglect, and exploitation in facilities receiving payments under the Medicaid program.