Press Release
Anchorage Taxi Driver Convicted for Fraudulently Billing Medicaid
December 18, 2012
Today, 30 year old Nejdet Gunes of Anchorage was sentenced for committing medical assistance fraud. Gunes was ordered to pay a $500 fine and to pay restitution to the State of Alaska. He will be on probation for three years.
In 2010, the Alaska Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), in conjunction with the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the FBI, conducted a joint investigation into the illegal use of Medicaid travel vouchers.
During the investigation, Gunes accepted Medicaid vouchers for rides that violated the terms and conditions of the voucher program. Gunes also purchased unused vouchers from the OIG agents for cash. Gunes submitted a total of four vouchers for reimbursement. The vouchers submitted all reflected rides not actually provided by Gunes to locations that qualified under the voucher program and for amounts in excess of the actual rides provided.
As a result of his conviction, Gunes will receive a lifetime ban from billing Medicaid for services provided to Medicaid recipients. Gunes may also face a possible suspension or revocation of his three taxi licenses.
The Alaska MFCU is part of the Attorney General’s Office. The MFCU is responsible for investigating and prosecuting Medicaid fraud and abuse, neglect or financial exploitations of patients in any facility that accepts Medicaid funds. The Alaska MFCU charged five additional cases in the last two months against Personal Care Attendants who billed the State of Alaska for services that were never provided to Medicaid recipients.
CONTACT: Assistant Attorney General Andrew Peterson at 907-269-6292. For more information about the Gunes case or other cases handled by the Alaska MFCU, go to http://www.law.alaska.gov/department/criminal/mfcu.html.
- State v. Nejdet Gunes Informaiton - PDF(65K)
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Department Media Contacts: Communications Director Patty Sullivan at patty.sullivan@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6368. Information Officer Sam Curtis at sam.curtis@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6269.