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Omar Rajeh, 57, of Hamden, was sentenced in Bridgeport to one year and three months in prison for defrauding multiple COVID-19 pandemic relief programs.
A Connecticut man was sentenced in Bridgeport federal court on Thursday for defrauding COVID-19 pandemic relief programs out of more than $750,000.
Omar Rajeh, 57, of Hamden, was sentenced to 15 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, according to a report from the Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
In March 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, gave emergency monetary assistance to Americans who were challenged by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Part of the CARES Act involved the authorization of forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses through the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP.
The PPP was overseen by the U.S. Small Business Administration, or SBA, and PPP loans were issued by private lenders, who then received and processed PPP applications and supporting documentation before making loans using the lenders’ own funds. Those were guaranteed by the SBA.
Another source of relief that the CARES Act offered was the distribution of Economic Injury Disaster Loans, or EIDLs, through the SBA, which gave working capital to eligible small businesses to meet operating costs.
Court documents and statements show that Rajeh maintained an ownership or management interest in a New Haven restaurant, Mediterranea LLC, and a hookah lounge, M. Café Inc. He previously operated the restaurant under the name Al Amir LLC, but that entity dissolved in 2018. --->READ MORE HERE
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A company that operated urgent care clinics in Idaho during the COVID-19 pandemic has paid $3 million to settle allegations of overbilling.
Bloom Care LLC allegedly submitted false claims to federal health insurers for medically unnecessary testing and inflated the extent of services it performed in violation of the False Claims Act, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office for Idaho.
Bloom operated franchise American Family Care Urgent Care clinics in the Treasure Valley, including at least one each in Boise, Meridian, Nampa and Garden City. By December 2023, the AFC clinics had been taken over by Sterling Urgent Care, an Idaho Falls company, and converted to Sterling clinics.
Half of the $3 million settlement is restitution, according to a copy of the agreement the U.S. attorney’s office shared with the Idaho Statesman. The document, signed June 27, says Bloom also owned AFC Urgent Care franchises in New Mexico and Colorado.
Federal investigators said Bloom knowingly used the pandemic as an excuse to bill for streptococcus and influenza tests for asymptomatic patients.
They alleged that the clinics submitted claims for high-level evaluation and management services for COVID-19 patients that should have been billed at a lower level of service, which would have been reimbursed at a lower rate. To justify the high reimbursement claims, Bloom exaggerated the time it spent with such patients and the complexity of the evaluations needed to care for them. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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