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| Leonard Uchenna Nwafor |
A
Nigerian-born American fugitive convicted in a $1-million health-care fraud
scheme in California was arrested Wednesday [Jan. 2] in Canada.
Police
said Leonard Uchenna Nwafor was
detained on an extradition warrant at his Toronto residence. The U.S. Marshals
Service contacted Toronto authorities in August 2012 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.
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.
 |
U.S. Postal
Inspection Service Toronto police say they arrested Leonard Nwafor on an
extradition warrant in the Canadian city on Wednesday.
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- nbcnews
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