Jamaican sentenced to one year in US prison for defrauding Medicaid
Published:Friday | September 16, 2022 | 11:58 AM
A Jamaican man has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment in the United States and has been ordered to pay more than US$150,000 in restitution for making false statements to receive Medicaid benefits.
Fifty-year-old Marvel Johnson, who says he is the Bishop of the Apostolic Ark Pentecostal Church in the US, was sentenced on Thursday in a Connecticut court.
Court documents revealed that between 2008 and 2020, Johnson used false social security numbers to enrol and maintain his enrolment in the Connecticut Medicaid health care benefits programme known as 'Husky'.
He also tried unsuccessfully to get retroactive insurance coverage for his son in 2015.
In 2018, following a verification request by the authorities for a citizenship document, Johnson mailed a false New Jersey birth certificate bearing his name.
However, Johnson was, in fact, born in Jamaica.
US District Judge Jeffrey Meyer has ordered Johnson to pay restitution of US$150,380.83
Johnson was arrested on November 19, 2020, and pleaded guilty on April 28, 2022, to making false statements in healthcare matters.
Johnson, who is released on a US$50,000 bond, is required to report to prison on December 1.
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