Former Charlotte housing provider sentenced in $15M Medicaid fraud scheme

CHARLOTTE — A 54-year-old Indiana woman was sentenced to 30 months in prison for her role in a $15 million conspiracy to defraud the North Carolina Medicaid program, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District announced Tuesday.

Jordan will also get three years of supervised release and must pay $5.88 million in restitution.

Jordan was the owner of Legacy Housing, which provided subsidized housing to tenants in Charlotte and Greensboro, according to court documents.

Jordan’s co-conspirator, Donald Booker, owned and operated United Diagnostic Laboratories, a urine toxicology testing laboratory.

They also owned and operated United Youth Care Services, which is a company that provided mental health and substance abuse treatment services.

Jordan and Booker conspired with others to defraud Medicaid between January 2018 and December 2020 through a fake drug-testing scheme of urine samples from Medicaid-eligible beneficiaries, according to the U.S. attorney.

Jordan previously admitted in court they recruited housing-vulnerable people and other Medicaid-eligible beneficiaries for housing and other programs and services, the U.S. attorney said.

Once enrolled, the beneficiaries were required to submit urine specimens for drug testing as a condition of the program. The specimens were provided to UDL and UYCS for medically unnecessary urine drug testing, the U.S. attorney said.

Booker and his co-conspirators paid Jordan a kickback from the Medicaid reimbursements on the drug testing. Jordan also conspired with Booker to execute a conspiracy to launder the fraudulent money to conceal and disguise the nature and source of the illegal kickback payments for the illicit drug-testing referrals.

On December 9, 2022, Jordan pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

In January 2023, Booker was convicted at trial of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, multiple violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, money laundering conspiracy, and money laundering.

Booker is awaiting sentencing.

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