DETROIT, MI – September 16, 2026 (STL.News) A Michigan man previously convicted of taking illegal health care kickbacks and bribes has been arrested and charged in a new federal case alleging his involvement in more than $4.75 million in fraudulent Medicare claims, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The latest prosecution of Emory Matthews, 62, of Farmington Hills, goes beyond allegations of ordinary billing irregularities. Federal prosecutors allege Medicare was billed for psychotherapy that was never provided, including services purportedly delivered while beneficiaries were hospitalized and services allegedly billed after Medicare beneficiaries had died.
Prosecutors also allege former employees’ names were used on fraudulent Medicare claims.
Matthews’ previous health care conviction adds another significant dimension to the case. The Justice Department says Matthews had already been excluded from billing Medicare because of his earlier conviction for soliciting and receiving illegal health care kickbacks and bribes.
Despite that exclusion, prosecutors allege Matthews continued working as an administrator and managing employee of New Beginnings Adult Center Inc., a Detroit adult day care operation, while concealing his involvement with the Medicare provider from the government.
The alleged scheme ran for more than five years.
According to the DOJ, Matthews allegedly submitted more than $4.75 million in false and fraudulent Medicare claims between January 2020 and June 2025.
Matthews was arrested Sept. 14 after a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Michigan returned an indictment charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and three substantive counts of health care fraud.
Each count carries a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison if Matthews is convicted. Judges determine actual sentences in federal cases after considering federal sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
The charges against Matthews are allegations. He is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Wife has already pleaded guilty
The investigation has already produced a guilty plea from Matthews’ wife, Yolanda Matthews, 58, of Farmington Hills.
Yolanda Matthews pleaded guilty July 27 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Her case provides additional verified details about what federal investigators say was occurring at New Beginnings because the conduct contained in her plea is no longer merely an accusation against her.
According to the Justice Department, Yolanda Matthews admitted to continuously submitting false Medicare claims for psychotherapy services that weren’t actually provided.
She admitted billing Medicare for purported psychotherapy at the adult day care center during periods when beneficiaries were hospitalized and therefore could not have been receiving the claimed services at New Beginnings.
She also admitted submitting claims under the names of social workers who were no longer employed at the facility.
Perhaps most strikingly, DOJ says Yolanda Matthews admitted that Medicare was billed for psychotherapy supposedly provided to beneficiaries after those beneficiaries were dead.
The Justice Department placed the fraudulent claims admitted by Yolanda Matthews at more than $539,000.
She is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 18 and faces a statutory maximum of 10 years in prison.
Yolanda Matthews was originally charged as part of the Justice Department’s 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown. In its national case summary, DOJ identified her as the owner, managing employee, CEO, and authorized official for New Beginnings Adult Center and initially described the alleged fraudulent claims as totaling at least approximately $500,000.
The later guilty-plea announcement placed the amount she admitted submitting at more than $539,000.
Prosecutors allege a much larger scheme
The new indictment against Emory Matthews dramatically expands the financial scope of the government’s allegations.
The Justice Department now alleges more than $4.75 million in false and fraudulent Medicare claims were submitted during a period stretching from January 2020 through June 2025.
According to prosecutors, Emory and Yolanda Matthews allegedly participated in a scheme involving several methods:
They allegedly submitted claims for individual and group psychotherapy sessions that never occurred.
They allegedly billed Medicare for beneficiaries who were hospitalized at the time the psychotherapy supposedly occurred.
They allegedly submitted claims for beneficiaries who had already died.
And prosecutors say former employees’ identities were used on false Medicare claims.
Federal investigators also allege the defendants concealed Emory Matthews’ status as an excluded Medicare participant by failing to disclose his position as a managing employee of New Beginnings.
That allegation may ultimately prove to be one of the case’s most consequential aspects.
Matthews had already been convicted
This wasn’t Matthews’ first encounter with federal health care enforcement.
According to the Justice Department, Matthews was previously convicted of soliciting and receiving illegal health care kickbacks and bribes stemming from his earlier operation of the adult day care center.
As a consequence of that conviction, Matthews was excluded from billing Medicare.
Federal exclusion is intended to prevent individuals convicted of certain health care offenses from continuing to participate in federally funded health care programs.
The new indictment alleges that Matthews nevertheless functioned as an administrator and managing employee at New Beginnings.
Rather than disclosing that relationship, prosecutors allege Matthews and his wife concealed it by failing to report his management role as required.
The allegations raise an important broader oversight question: How was an individual previously convicted in connection with health care kickbacks and excluded from Medicare allegedly able to remain involved in managing a health care operation connected to Medicare billing?
The indictment alleges how Matthews’ involvement was concealed, but the publicly available DOJ announcement does not establish when Medicare regulators became aware of his alleged continuing management role or whether any government agency had previously identified it.
Those questions could become increasingly important as the prosecution develops.
State records reveal an additional regulatory history
A deeper examination of Michigan regulatory records reveals another significant chapter involving Emory and Yolanda Matthews.
The records concern a separate Farmington Hills adult foster care facility called New Beginnings, rather than the Detroit adult day care provider at the center of the federal Medicare prosecution.
The distinction is important.
Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs records identify the Farmington Hills New Beginnings at 32999 W. 14 Mile Road. The state identified Javon Brown as the licensee and Yolanda Matthews as administrator.
The facility was originally licensed on Jan. 13, 2022, for a capacity of six residents. Its program classifications included people who were physically disabled, developmentally disabled, aged, or living with Alzheimer’s disease.
Emory Matthews also appears extensively in the state’s investigation.
In July 2023, the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs conducted a special investigation after receiving allegations from Adult Protective Services.
The resulting report is notable.
State investigators found violations involving residents’ treatment and medications. The state described Emory Matthews in the report as the administrator’s husband.
The state ultimately recommended disciplinary action against the facility’s license because of the severity of the violations. The July 14, 2023, letter also stated that a previous recommendation to refuse renewal of the license, made in February 2023, remained in effect.
State found repeat violations
The investigation contains considerably more information than a routine licensing citation.
According to Michigan’s report, residents told investigators that Emory Matthews yelled at them after learning they had contacted Adult Protective Services and told them they had to leave the facility.
The state determined that the residents had not received required discharge notices.
Yolanda Matthews confirmed to investigators that the two residents had lived at the facility and acknowledged that they weren’t provided discharge notices, although she denied that Emory Matthews had verbally abused, yelled at or screamed at them.
Michigan regulators classified the matter as a repeat violation of the state’s resident-protection requirements.
The report references previous special investigations dated Feb. 8, June 21, and July 11, 2023.
The state investigation also examined allegations concerning residents’ medications.
One resident told investigators that Emory Matthews hadn’t administered medications because prescriptions hadn’t been filled. Another said her prescriptions sometimes sat for a week before being filled.
Yolanda Matthews confirmed to the state investigator that the two residents weren’t administered their medications, according to the report.
The state again concluded that a repeat violation had been established.
These state findings are separate from the federal Medicare fraud prosecution and should not be interpreted as evidence proving the allegations contained in Matthews’ new federal indictment. They do, however, establish that Emory and Yolanda Matthews had previously appeared in Michigan regulatory proceedings involving a New Beginnings adult foster care facility.
Two New Beginnings operations must be distinguished
The records require careful distinction because the New Beginnings identified in the Michigan licensing investigation isn’t the same address as the Detroit provider identified in the federal Medicare prosecution.
The federal case involves New Beginnings Adult Center Inc. in Detroit.
Publicly available NPI information identifies New Beginnings Adult Center Inc. under NPI 1003392135, with an address at 18954 Greenfield Road in Detroit.
The NPI was assigned July 11, 2018, and the organization was registered under adult mental health and adult day care classifications. The publicly indexed NPI record identifies Javon Brown as CEO and authorized official, although that record shows a last update date of Nov. 21, 2019.
The Better Business Bureau also lists the Detroit operation at 18954 Greenfield Road and identifies Javon Brown as CEO. The BBB says it opened its file on the business in July 2022.
That creates a noteworthy overlap in the public records.
Michigan’s 2023 licensing investigation of the separate Farmington Hills New Beginnings identifies Javon Brown as licensee and Yolanda Matthews as administrator.
Meanwhile, the publicly indexed NPI record for New Beginnings Adult Center Inc. in Detroit identifies Brown as CEO and authorized official.
And the Justice Department’s 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown case summary identifies Yolanda Matthews as owner, managing employee, CEO, and authorized official of New Beginnings Adult Center Inc.
Those records cover different periods and different regulatory systems, so the differences shouldn’t automatically be interpreted as contradictions.
They do, however, show a network of overlapping names and management relationships around New Beginnings operations that could receive additional scrutiny as the federal prosecution progresses.
There is no allegation in the DOJ materials reviewed by STL.News that Javon Brown participated in the alleged Medicare fraud. Identifying Brown in historical regulatory and provider records does not establish knowledge of or involvement in the alleged federal offenses.
A civil case also surfaced in Wayne County
Public court-index information additionally shows that Emory Matthews, Yolanda Matthews and New Beginnings were named as defendants in a civil lawsuit filed in Wayne County in May 2024.
The publicly available docket information identifies Jasmine Moyer as the plaintiff and shows the case was filed May 17, 2024, before Judge Edward J. Ewell Jr. The docket reflects the filing of a complaint and jury demand.
The publicly indexed information reviewed for this report doesn’t provide enough verified detail about the underlying allegations to determine whether the civil case relates to the federal Medicare investigation.
Accordingly, the lawsuit should not be interpreted as evidence supporting the government’s criminal allegations.
Medicare fraud crackdown expands
The Matthews prosecution is also part of a much larger federal campaign against fraud involving government health programs.
The Justice Department says its Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program currently consists of nine strike forces operating in federal districts around the country.
Since the program began in 2007, DOJ says prosecutors have charged more than 6,200 defendants associated with more than $45 billion in billings to federal health care programs and private insurers.
Federal authorities say the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General are also taking steps to hold health care providers accountable for involvement in fraudulent schemes.
The FBI’s Detroit Field Office and HHS-OIG conducted the Matthews investigation.
Trial Attorney Jeffrey A. Crapko of the Justice Department’s Health Care Fraud Section is prosecuting the case.
The prosecution also falls within the Justice Department’s expanded federal fraud-enforcement structure.
DOJ announced the creation of its National Fraud Enforcement Division on April 7. The department says its fraud-enforcement work supports the federal Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a broader government effort focused on fraud, waste, and abuse in federal benefit programs.
The timeline raises oversight questions
Taken together, the records show a longer, more complicated history than the latest federal indictment alone reveals.
New Beginnings Adult Center Inc.’s NPI dates to 2018.
Federal prosecutors allege the current Medicare scheme began in January 2020.
A separate New Beginnings facility in Farmington Hills received its original state license in January 2022, with Yolanda Matthews identified as administrator in the subsequent state investigation.
Michigan regulators documented repeat violations at that facility in 2023 and recommended disciplinary action against its license.
A Wayne County civil lawsuit naming Emory Matthews, Yolanda Matthews and New Beginnings followed in 2024.
According to DOJ, Emory Matthews had separately been convicted of soliciting and receiving illegal health care kickbacks and bribes and consequently excluded from billing Medicare.
Yet federal prosecutors now allege the Medicare fraud scheme continued until June 2025, with Matthews participating as a managing employee and administrator while concealing his excluded status and management position.
Then, in 2026, the federal investigation accelerated.
Yolanda Matthews was charged as part of the National Health Care Fraud Takedown, pleaded guilty on July 27, and admitted to more than $539,000 in false Medicare claims.
Prosecutors arrested Emory Matthews on September 14, 2026.
The Justice Department announced the new $4.75 million case against him Sept. 15.
That chronology makes the case relevant beyond the dollar amount Medicare allegedly lost.
It raises a larger issue confronting federal health care programs: whether exclusion and provider-screening systems are sufficient to prevent people previously convicted of health care crimes from continuing to exercise control over businesses receiving federal health care dollars.
Prosecutors believe they know how that happened in this case.
They allege Matthews and his wife concealed his Medicare exclusion by failing to disclose that he was serving as a managing employee of New Beginnings.
Whether other people or institutions knew about Matthews’ role, when federal regulators became aware of it, and what controls were in place to detect an excluded person’s participation are questions that may become clearer as the criminal case proceeds.
Case remains pending
Emory Matthews hasn’t been convicted of the offenses contained in the new indictment.
He faces one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and three counts of health care fraud. Each offense carries a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment if he is convicted.
Yolanda Matthews stands in a different legal position because she has already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Her sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 18.
The new indictment against Emory Matthews represents allegations by federal prosecutors, not findings of guilt. Under U.S. law, Matthews is presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove the charges against him beyond a reasonable doubt.
The case nevertheless provides an unusually detailed look at the challenge federal authorities face in protecting Medicare: detecting not only false claims, but also determining who is actually controlling and managing the organizations submitting them.
For Matthews, the central allegation matters because federal authorities say this isn’t his first health care fraud-related prosecution.
After a previous conviction involving illegal health care kickbacks and bribes led to his exclusion from Medicare, prosecutors allege he returned to a management role and participated in another scheme that generated more than $4.75 million in allegedly fraudulent claims.
This time, his wife has already pleaded guilty.
Read Business and Headline News at STL.News
Sources
Primary records reviewed for this report include the Sept. 15, 2026, U.S. Department of Justice announcement concerning Emory Matthews; DOJ’s July announcement concerning Yolanda Matthews’ guilty plea; DOJ’s 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown case summaries; Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs records; and publicly available provider and court-index records.
Legal notice: Criminal charges contained in an indictment are allegations. Emory Matthews is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. References to separate regulatory findings or civil litigation are provided as documented background and do not establish guilt in the pending federal criminal case.
