Author Archives: virginiasmp

Update: Home Health Agency Owner Sentenced

In an update to a June 20, 2025, story, Paul Njoku has been sentenced to more than six years in federal prison. Read a Department of Justice press release.  Paul Njoku, owner of home health care agency Opnet Health Care Services Inc., doing business as P & P Health Care Services, was convicted for leading aContinue reading “Update: Home Health Agency Owner Sentenced”

AARP’s ‘Fraud Wars’ Episode 1: Judith Boivin Had $600,000 Stolen in an FBI Impostor Scam 

By the time the scammers posing as law enforcement called Judith Boivin’s cellphone, they had researched their target well. They knew she’d worked as a registered nurse and a clinical social worker before becoming a licensed therapist. They knew she had worked in Belize to help children with HIV and had lived for three yearsContinue reading “AARP’s ‘Fraud Wars’ Episode 1: Judith Boivin Had $600,000 Stolen in an FBI Impostor Scam “

Nurse Convicted of Fraud Scheme

Nurse practitioner Scharmaine Lawson Baker was convicted for her role in an over $12.1 million health care fraud scheme to defraud Medicare by ordering medically unnecessary cancer genetic tests for hundreds of patients she never met or examined. She falsely diagnosed patients to justify the unnecessary tests, such as diagnosing male patients with cervical cancer.Continue reading “Nurse Convicted of Fraud Scheme”

CVS Omnicare Ordered to Pay $949 Million

A federal judge has ordered CVS Omnicare to pay $949 million. Allegations say that Omnicare dispensed drugs not supported by valid prescriptions to individuals in 3,000 long-term residential facilities and charged Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE for those drugs. Prescriptions were automatically assigned new prescription numbers, refills were automatically authorized, and prescriptions were periodically refilled inContinue reading “CVS Omnicare Ordered to Pay $949 Million”

How to help protect foster youth from identity theft 

Identity theft can happen to anyone, including kids in foster care. But minors typically don’t have credit reports, so they might not even realize they’ve experienced identity theft until they apply for a job, housing, or credit. Because foster youth often move more often and more people have access to their info, they’re at greaterContinue reading “How to help protect foster youth from identity theft “

17-Year-Old Named ‘Kid of the Year’ for Work Protecting Older Adults From Cybercrime

 After Tejasvi Manoj, 17, learned that an online scammer had almost stolen $2,000 from her 85-year-old grandfather last year, the Texas high school student decided she wanted to do something to help other older adults navigate the internet safely. So she developed an app that helps users detect scams. (Read More)

Two Arrested for Hospice Scheme

Normita Sierra and Rowena Elegado were arrested on an indictment alleging a $4.8 million hospice services scheme to defraud Medicare. According to the indictment, Sierra owned and operated Golden Meadows Hospice Inc. and D’Alexandria Hospice Inc., which billed Medicare for hospice services for patients who were not terminally ill. Under pressure from Sierra, who madeContinue reading “Two Arrested for Hospice Scheme”