BROOKLYN, NY – October 3, 2026 (STL.News) A Brooklyn social adult day care owner has pleaded guilty to participating in a years-long scheme that federal prosecutors say generated approximately $65 million in fraudulent Medicaid claims for adult day care and home health care services that were not provided.
Ahsan Ijaz, 29, of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty Oct. 2 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Ijaz owned Happy Family Social Adult Day Care Center Inc. and Family Social Adult Day Care Center Inc., two social adult day care centers in Brooklyn, as well as Responsible Care Staffing Inc., a home health care fiscal intermediary.
Federal prosecutors said the businesses paid cash kickbacks and bribes to Medicaid recipients to induce them to enroll with the companies and then billed Medicaid for services that were not actually provided.
In some cases, prosecutors said Medicaid was billed for purported services provided to recipients who were not even in the United States at the time.
Ijaz is now the 10th defendant to plead guilty in connection with the sprawling Medicaid fraud investigation.
He is scheduled to be sentenced March 10, 2027, and faces a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
The actual sentence will be determined by a federal district judge after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Scheme dates to 2017
The latest guilty plea is the newest development in a federal investigation that became public in October 2024 but involves conduct prosecutors say began approximately seven years earlier.
Federal prosecutors originally charged Ijaz and seven other defendants in an indictment unsealed in the Eastern District of New York in October 2024.
According to the original charges, Ijaz and Zakia Khan owned and operated Happy Family and Family Social along with Responsible Care Staffing.
The alleged scheme began around October 2017.
Responsible Care served as a fiscal intermediary in New York Medicaid’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, commonly known as CDPAP.
The program allowed qualifying Medicaid recipients to obtain assistance with activities of daily living while giving consumers greater control over who provided their care.
According to federal prosecutors, however, the defendants exploited Medicaid-funded programs by using marketers to recruit beneficiaries and paying illegal financial incentives to generate business.
Prosecutors originally alleged the broader operation was responsible for approximately $68 million in Medicaid billing.
The figure differs somewhat from the approximately $65 million cited by DOJ in announcing Ijaz’s guilty plea. Separately, prosecutors later established in connection with Khan’s sentencing that Happy Family and Family Social fraudulently billed Medicaid approximately $64 million and that Medicaid paid approximately $56 million on those claims.
Those figures reflect different aspects of the broader case and should not be interpreted as interchangeable measures of the government’s alleged or proven losses.
Cash allegedly used to recruit Medicaid recipients
Prosecutors said the operation depended in part on recruiters and marketers who steered Medicaid recipients toward the businesses.
The original indictment identified Elaine Antao, also known as Aleena; Omneah Hamdi; and Manal Wasef as marketers who allegedly referred Medicaid recipients to Happy Family, Family Social and Responsible Care in exchange for kickbacks and bribes.
Prosecutors alleged the marketers then paid Medicaid recipients cash kickbacks and bribes associated with social adult day care and home health services billed to Medicaid.
Many Medicaid recipients enrolled at the adult day care centers did not actually visit the facilities or receive the services Medicaid was billed for on the purported dates of service, according to the government.
Some beneficiaries were outside the United States when records claimed they were receiving services in New York.
The government also alleged that business entities were used to launder proceeds from the fraud and generate cash used to finance the kickback operation.
The allegations eventually led to a series of guilty pleas involving owners, employees, marketers, and other participants.
Khan sentenced to more than six years
One of the most significant developments came in September when Khan was sentenced to 76 months — more than six years — in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Natasha C. Merle imposed the sentence following Khan’s August 2025 guilty plea to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay health care kickbacks.
Prosecutors identified Khan as a leader of the operation.
The government said she owned Happy Family and Family Social in Brooklyn’s Coney Island neighborhood, Responsible Care Staffing, and another entity called Tanwee Services Inc., which prosecutors said was used to receive and disguise fraud proceeds.
Federal authorities established during Khan’s case that Happy Family and Family Social fraudulently billed Medicaid approximately $64 million between 2017 and 2024.
Medicaid paid approximately $56 million on those claims.
As part of her sentence, Khan was ordered to pay more than $56 million in restitution.
She was also ordered to forfeit $5 million in fraud proceeds.
The forfeited assets included two properties as well as cash and gold jewelry seized by federal authorities during a search of Khan’s residence.
Undercover evidence showed cash payments
The government’s case went beyond an analysis of billing records.
Federal authorities have released images obtained during the investigation showing Khan in an undercover recording paying illegal kickbacks inside her Happy Family office.
Other images prosecutors released showed Medicaid recipients receiving cash in exchange for filling out false attendance sheets for the social adult day care centers.
Those attendance records were important because they could create documentation suggesting beneficiaries had received services at the centers.
Prosecutors said the services underlying the Medicaid claims were never actually provided as claimed.
The businesses nevertheless submitted reimbursement claims.
The government’s evidence provided investigators with a direct view of how cash generated through the operation was allegedly recycled into payments designed to maintain the flow of Medicaid beneficiaries and subsequent claims.
Recruiters also pleaded guilty
The prosecution has expanded well beyond the two owners.
In January, Antao and Wasef pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Federal prosecutors described both women as large-scale recruiters for Happy Family, Family Social and Responsible Care.
Between approximately October 2017 and July 2024, the two referred Medicaid beneficiaries to the businesses in exchange for illegal kickbacks and bribes, according to court documents.
They also paid kickbacks to Medicaid recipients associated with social adult day care and home health care services billed to Medicaid but not provided, prosecutors said.
Antao and Wasef used multiple business entities to launder proceeds and generate cash used to finance the kickback payments, according to the DOJ.
Under their plea agreements, the two women agreed to forfeit approximately $1 million collectively.
At the time of their January guilty pleas, they became the sixth and seventh defendants to plead guilty in the case.
Other defendants who had already pleaded guilty included Amran Hashmi, Joseph Helmy, Amal Ismail, Khan and Seema Memon.
Ijaz’s Oct. 2 plea brings the number of defendants who have pleaded guilty in connection with the investigation to 10, according to DOJ.
Original indictment charged eight defendants
The original October 2024 indictment provides additional detail about the alleged structure of the operation.
Besides Ijaz and Khan, prosecutors charged Ansir Abassi, Antao, Hamdi, Hashmi, Memon and Wasef.
Abassi and Hashmi were accused of managing the adult day care operations and marketing.
Memon was an employee of Happy Family and had previously been charged in a criminal complaint in July 2024.
At that stage of the case, prosecutors charged Ijaz with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay and receive health care kickbacks, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering.
Those charges were allegations when filed, and defendants were presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Ijaz has now admitted criminal liability by pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
His plea does not establish the guilt of any defendant who has not pleaded guilty or otherwise been convicted.
Fraud targeted Medicaid-funded services
The case illustrates vulnerabilities federal authorities have increasingly targeted in Medicaid-funded adult day care and home health programs.
Unlike a traditional health care fraud case involving fabricated medical procedures, the Brooklyn prosecution centers heavily on services designed to support Medicaid recipients outside conventional hospitals and doctors’ offices.
Social adult day care programs provide services and supervision to adults who need assistance, while consumer-directed home care programs help people remain in their homes and communities rather than in institutional settings.
The government alleges that the defendants instead used enrollment in those programs to generate Medicaid claims.
Cash incentives allegedly helped recruit and retain Medicaid recipients.
False attendance or service records could then support reimbursement claims.
Business entities allegedly helped convert fraud proceeds into cash that could be fed back into the recruitment operation.
The combination allowed the scheme to continue for years, federal prosecutors said.
Multiple agencies investigated
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, Homeland Security Investigations New York, and the New York City Police Department conducted the investigation.
Deputy Chief Patrick J. Campbell and Trial Attorney Leonid Sandlar of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division’s Health Care Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Claire Kedeshian of the Eastern District of New York is assisting with forfeiture matters.
The case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York under docket number 24-CR-409 before U.S. District Judge Natasha C. Merle.
The prosecution is also part of a much broader federal effort targeting health care fraud.
DOJ said in September that its Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program had charged more than 6,200 defendants since 2007 who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion.
Those figures encompass cases nationwide and are not specific to the Brooklyn investigation.
Ijaz awaits March sentencing
Ijaz’s guilty plea removes another defendant from the trial track and leaves sentencing as the next major stage in his case.
He faces up to 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
The statutory maximum does not mean Ijaz will receive a 10-year sentence.
Federal sentencing judges consider the advisory Sentencing Guidelines, the defendant’s conduct, criminal history, acceptance of responsibility, and other factors established under federal law before imposing a sentence.
Financial penalties, restitution, and forfeiture issues may also be addressed as the case proceeds.
His sentencing is currently scheduled for March 10, 2027.
The guilty plea nevertheless represents another significant step toward resolving a prosecution that federal authorities say uncovered years of fraudulent billing, illegal kickbacks and the misuse of businesses to move and disguise proceeds derived from Medicaid.
The investigation has already produced multiple guilty pleas, millions of dollars in forfeiture and the 76-month prison sentence imposed on Khan.
With Ijaz now admitting to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, federal prosecutors have secured guilty pleas from 10 defendants connected to the operation.
Legal note: Ahsan Ijaz has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and is awaiting sentencing. Multiple other defendants in the case have also pleaded guilty, while Zakia Khan has pleaded guilty and has been sentenced. Any charges or allegations against defendants who have not pleaded guilty or been convicted remain allegations, and those defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
