Home Health Company Owner Sentenced to 9 Years in Prison for $2.8 Million Medicare Fraud

Yogesh K. Pancholi, an Indian citizen living in Northville, Michigan, has been sentenced to nine years in prison for orchestrating a nearly $2.8 million health care fraud and wire fraud conspiracy and engaging in money laundering, aggravated identity theft, and witness tampering, the Department of Justice announced yesterday (Jan. 30). The 43-year-old Pancholi owned and operated Shring Home Care Inc., a home health company based in Livonia. 

Despite being excluded from billing Medicare, Pancholi “purchased Shring using the names, signatures, and personal identifying information of others to conceal his ownership of the company,” according to court documents and evidence presented at trial. In a two-month period, he and his co-conspirators billed and were paid “nearly $2.8 million by Medicare for services that were never provided. He then transferred these funds through bank accounts belonging to shell corporations and eventually into his accounts in India. 

After being indicted, and on the eve of trial, Pancholi used a pseudonym to write false and malicious emails to various federal government agencies. He alleged that “a government witness had committed various crimes and should not be allowed to remain in the United States in an attempt to keep the witness from testifying,” the DOJ said. 

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In September 2023, a federal jury in the Eastern District of Michigan convicted Pancholi of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud, two substantive counts of health care fraud, two counts of money laundering, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of witness tampering.