Wheelchair scheme takes in $2.3 million

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Two doctors and several Kansas City businessmen have been charged with participating in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme to bill Medicare for expensive motorized wheelchairs for patients who didn't need them or didn't receive them, federal authorities said Friday.

Four men who owned or operated medical supply businesses -- Godwin Iloka, 38, of Lee's Summit; Raphael Igbokwe, 49, of Kansas City; his brother Kennedy Igbokwe, a 27-year-old Nigerian citizen; and Roland Edomobi -- and two doctors -- Amazair McAllister, 48, of Blue Springs, and Ambrose Wotorson, 70, of Kansas City -- were charged in a criminal complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City and unsealed Thursday.

They are accused of defrauding Medicare of more than $2.3 million.

Iloka, McAllister and Wotorson were arrested Thursday, and Wotorson and McAllister were released on bond. The U.S. attorney also issued arrest warrants for the Igbokwe brothers and Edomobi, but they had not yet been arrested Friday afternoon.

"These defendants would visit nursing homes, apartment buildings and senior centers and recruit people to receive wheelchairs who didn't need them," said spokesman Don Ledford, a spokesman for Graves. "They were all working with each other."

Wotorson, who was arrested Thursday and released on a $10,000 bond, refused to comment, and his attorney did not immediately return calls. McAllister, who was arrested Thursday and released on a $25,000 bond, did not have a listed phone number, and his attorney did not return a call seeking comment. Messages left for Iloka, who was still in federal custody pending a detention hearing next week, were not immediately returned, and it was not yet clear if he had an attorney.

Arrest warrants were issued for the other men, and they could not be reached for comment Friday.

The men are accused of filing fraudulent claims to get reimbursed from Medicare for 80 percent of the cost of nearly 1,000 motorized wheelchairs, which came out to about $4,000 per chair. The complaint alleges that the defendants also received nearly $260,000 in fraudulent Missouri Medicaid reimbursements.

Patients could qualify for the wheelchairs only after getting a "certificate of medical necessity" from a doctor.

From January 2002 through September 2005, Iloka, the Igbokwe brothers and Edomobi submitted 989 claims for power wheelchairs, the affidavit said. Almost 75 percent of those claims were referred by either Wotorson or McAllister, but authorities said that sometimes the patients didn't need the wheelchairs, sometimes they never received them and other times they received inexpensive scooters instead.

"It was a circular operation," said Ledford. "The doctors would conduct a physical exam, then they would certify that the patients had a medical need for a motorized wheelchair and would send a certificate of medical necessity to the supply companies."

Ledford said the complaint will be presented to a federal grand jury for indictment next month. Senior Litigation Counsel Gene Porter will prosecute the case.