Thu, Oct 9, 2014

The de facto owner of a Clifton-based ambulance and wheelchair transportation service was arrested Tuesday for allegedly laundering government money and operating the business while banned from dealing with Medicare, according to federal prosecutors.

Imadeldin Awad Khair, 54, of Paterson, is charged with health care fraud and money laundering – charges that each carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and $250,000 fines.

Khair was convicted in 2003 of a state health care charge that excluded him from participating in Medicare, Medicaid or other federal health care programs for 11 years.

However, since 2011, Khair has been secretly operating K&S Invalid Coach, a licensed ambulance and wheelchair transportation service, prosecutors said. He has received more than $485,000 from K&S and has had substantial control over company bank accounts including the authority to hire and fire employees, determine their salaries and enforce company policies, authorities said.

With nearly all of K&S’ patients being Medicare beneficiaries requiring transportation to dialysis treatment, Medicare has paid more than $6 million in claims to the business since 2011. K&S has been in the top 3 percent of the more than 400 ambulance transport providers in the state as measured by receipt of Medicare payments.

Once the Medicare funds were deposited into a K&S account, Khair transferred money to other accounts including one that contained $86,000 in transfers that he then used “for the purpose of completing a real estate transaction,” officials said.