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Leonard Nwafor, the owner of Pacific City Group Inc., wrongly received more than $526,000 from the federal health
benefit program between January 2006 and May 2008, according to the federal indictment. He faces up to 110 years in
prison after a federal jury convicted him 11 counts of health care fraud and conspiracy.
Federal prosecutors said Nwafor, 42, billed Medicare for motorized wheelchairs on behalf of more than 170 beneficiaries
who did not need them. The chairs can cost up to $7,000 each.
An elderly woman testified at trial that a Nwafor associate posed as a Medicare employee and threatened to pull her
benefits if she and her husband didn't accept two electric wheelchairs they didn't need.
In other testimony, a blind man said he could not operate the wheelchair or carry it up and down the steps to his
apartment, but was still provided one.
Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 1. U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said it's unlikely Nwafor will
get the maximum sentence.
Nwafor also faces separate federal mail fraud charges. A trial date has not been set.
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LOS ANGELES - A medical supplier was convicted Monday of fraudulently billing Medicare more than $1.1 million for
wheelchairs that were forced on elderly people who did not need them.