A Brooklyn adult daycare owner who plotted a $64 million Medicaid fraud scheme — and was caught on a secret camera smiling while counting out her kickback cash — has been sentenced to six years in prison.
Zakia Khan, 55, paid kickbacks and bribes to Medicaid recipients who billed the health program for phantom services purportedly carried out at her two Coney Island businesses between October 2017 and July 2024, according to the Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office.
The admitted fraudster was pictured excitedly counting out a stack of cash for an undercover officer posing as a Medicaid client during a 2023 meeting at the office of her daycare center, Happy Family, on W. 32nd St. near Mermaid Avenue, court records show.
Happy Family and Zhan’s other daycare, Family Social, fraudulently billed Medicaid for around $64 million in phony treatments, of which Medicaid paid out around $56 million in claims, the feds say.
Khan was ordered to pay back the $56 million in restitution and to forfeit $5 million of ill-gotten gains, including two properties, stacks of cash and a trove of gold jewelry seized during a search of her Brooklyn home, court records show.
US District Judge Natasha Merle sentenced the scammer to 76 months — or 6 1/4 years — during a hearing Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court. Khan had pleaded guilty last August to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Khan’s sentence comes as watchdogs have long criticized the state’s Medicaid homecare program as rife with corruption and abuse.
The allegedly fraud-ridden Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) allows New Yorkers with minimal experience to get paid to take care of loved ones at home.
Hundreds of “middleman” firms essentially work as payroll agents between the caregivers and Medicaid, with minimal oversight, watchdogs have alleged.
A defense attorney repping Khan in court did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.
