Former Charlotte housing provider is sentenced to prison for Medicaid fraud and money laundering conspiracy

 

Date: August 1, 2023
Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

Today, U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell sentenced Delores Jordan, of Charlestown, Indiana, to 30 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for her role in a $15 million conspiracy to defraud the North Carolina Medicaid program (Medicaid), announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. In addition to the prison term imposed, Judge Bell also ordered Jordan to pay $5,879,340 in restitution.

Joining U.S. Attorney King in making today’s announcement are Charlotte Division, Donald “Trey” Eakins, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, Charlotte Field Office (IRS-CI), Robert M. DeWitt, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Attorney General Josh Stein, who oversees the North Carolina Medicaid Investigations Division (MID).

According to filed court documents and court proceedings, Jordan was the owner of Legacy Housing, which provided subsidized housing to tenants in Charlotte and Greensboro. Jordan’s co-conspirator, Donald Booker, owned and operated United Diagnostic Laboratories (UDL), a urine toxicology testing laboratory, and United Youth Care Services (UYCS), a company that provided mental health and substance abuse treatment services. Court documents show that from January 2018 to December 2020, Jordan conspired with Booker and others to defraud Medicaid via a fraudulent drug testing scheme of urine samples of Medicaid-eligible beneficiaries.

As Jordan previously admitted in court, she along with other co-conspirators recruited housing-vulnerable individuals and other Medicaid-eligible beneficiaries for housing and other programs and services. Once enrolled, the beneficiaries were required to submit urine specimens for drug testing as a condition of their participation in the program. The specimens were provided to UDL and UYCS for medically unnecessary urine drug testing. 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 proceeds in order 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 health care 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.

 IRS-CI, the FBI, and NC Medicaid Investigations Division investigated the case.

The prosecution for the government is handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Graham Billings and Mike Savage of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte.