Couple buys overseas condo after swindling millions from Medicare, COVID funds, feds say
A Michigan couple is accused of swindling millions through elaborate fraud schemes, taking advantage of Medicare, Medicaid and COVID-19 relief funds for years, authorities said.
Wahid and Zeinab Makki, both 59, from Dearborn Heights, a city about 15 miles west of Detroit, were arrested on March 23.
Alexander H. Benson and William W. Swor, defense attorneys for the couple, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.
COVID-19 relief scam
Investigators said in court documents that Wahid Makki received a total of $1,082,600 in Economic Injury Disaster Loans (“EIDL”) in June and July 2020 after he reported fraudulent business revenue information and employee counts for the loan applications.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act is a March 2020 federal law designed to provide financial assistance to people in the U.S. who suffered economically under the pandemic.
One of the benefits provided by the CARES Act is theEIDL program, which gives low-interest financing to small businesses, renters and homeowners.
Wahid Makki applied for EIDL loans 17 times – of which 10 were deposited into his bank accounts, court documents show.
The man is accused of transferring about 88% of the COVID-19 relief funds into a personal bank account between December 2020 and March 2021.
On March 8, 2021, a wire in the amount of $1,190,000 was sent from this personal account to a bank in Istanbul, Turkey, with the transfer’s purpose described as “buying a seaview condo in einmericy Beirut-Lebanon,” court documents show.
“Economic Injury Disaster Loans played a significant role in keeping many Michigan businesses running during the pandemic,” Josh Hauxhurst, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit Division, said in a news release. “This defendant is alleged to have taken money from that program and used it to purchase property overseas.”
‘Shortage scheme’
Zeinab Makki was a licensed pharmacist in charge of two Inkster pharmacies, New Millennium Drugs and Western Wayne Pharmacy, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Michigan.
Starting in 2012, court documents show Zeinab Makki submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid and other health insurers for medication that the pharmacies did not dispense to patients — also known as a “shortage scheme.”
Zeinab Makki is accused of submitting at least $10.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid for larger quantities of drugs than were actually sold, court documents show.
The submission of claims caused health insurers to make payments to the pharmacies operated by the woman, authorities said.
New Millennium Drugs submitted a total of 277 claims for medication for beneficiaries that were actually dead, for a total of $14,379.16, authorities said.
New Millennium Drugs received at least $33 million in reimbursements for claims that she submitted to Medicare between 2013 and 2021 into an account held in the name of her husband. Approximately $984,599 from these reimbursements were transferred into personal accounts held in the names of both Zeinab and Wahid Makki, court documents show.
Western Wayne Pharmacy received approximately $7.7 million in reimbursements for claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid by the woman between 2016 and 2021 into an account held in Wahid and Zeinab Makki’s names. Of this amount, about $450,000 was submitted to the woman’s personal bank account, investigators said.
Wahid Makki was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, court documents show, while his wife, Zeinab Makki, was charged with one count of healthcare fraud.
This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 10:33 AM with the headline "Couple buys overseas condo after swindling millions from Medicare, COVID funds, feds say."
