Former Houston Dental Clinic Employee Sentenced to 6 Years for Health Care Kickback Scheme

A 54-year-old man, Ifeanyi Ozoh, has been sentenced to 72 months in federal prison following his conviction for conspiring to pay and receive health care kickbacks. U.S. District Chief Judge Randy Crane handed down the sentence after a federal jury found Ozoh guilty on all counts following a three-day trial in February 2024.

Ozoh was also ordered to pay $4.9 million in restitution to Medicaid. His conviction stems from his role in a scheme where he paid marketers to refer Medicaid-insured children to a fraudulent dental clinic, Floss Family Dentalcare Center, where he worked from January 2020 to February 2021. The court found Ozoh responsible for bribing marketers with cash payments ranging from $20 to $100 for each referral, ultimately paying out over $163,000 in kickbacks.

Testimony during the trial revealed that Ozoh secretly paid the marketers, sometimes out of sight of others, and was warned by a clinic manager that such payments were illegal. Despite these warnings, Ozoh continued the scheme, which led to Floss Family Dentalcare Center billing Medicaid over $6 million, with more than $4 million paid out on claims tied to the fraudulent activities.

Medicaid prohibits kickbacks for medical referrals, and the evidence presented at trial highlighted that the dental services claimed were often not provided. Ozoh will serve his sentence followed by three years of supervised release.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI, Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and the Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathryn Olson and Lauren Valenti.