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A jaw-dropping $68 million was siphoned from New York’s Medicaid program in a brazen scheme that prosecutors say involved kickbacks, fake claims, and cash paid to vulnerable patients who never received services. Federal authorities announced guilty pleas in the case this month, revealing once again how taxpayer-funded safety nets are being gamed by opportunists.
In Brooklyn federal court on January 15, 2026, marketers Elaine Antao and Manal Wasef admitted they conspired to defraud Medicaid by steering enrollees to adult day cares and a home-health fiscal intermediary in exchange for illicit payments. Court filings show the scheme ran roughly from October 2017 through July 2024, with the two using shell entities to launder proceeds; as part of their pleas they agreed to forfeit about $1 million.
This scandal isn’t an isolated incident — prosecutors previously identified Zakia Khan as a ringleader of a related $68 million fraud, pleading guilty in August 2025 after investigators say she ran two adult day care centers and paid bribes and kickbacks to generate bogus Medicaid billings. Khan agreed to forfeit $5 million and had cash and jewelry seized, underscoring the brazen, cash-heavy nature of these operations that prey on a broken system.
Make no mistake: this was theft, plain and simple — not a victimless loophole. The defendants were accused of paying patients and recruiters to fabricate participation in services that were never provided, then billing Medicaid for those sham services while funneling the spoils through a web of companies. That pattern of pay-to-play “health care” is an affront to taxpayers and to the elderly and disabled who actually depend on these programs.
New Yorkers should be furious, and not just at the crooks on trial. These schemes flourish because of sprawling bureaucracies and perverse incentives that turn well-intentioned programs into ripe targets for fraud. Instead of reflexively expanding entitlements, policymakers should demand accountability, tighter enrollment controls, and harsh penalties for anyone who treats public benefits like a payday.
Prosecutors deserve credit for pursuing these cases, but criminal prosecutions alone aren’t enough; the system needs structural reform. The recent pleas remind us that defendants in these cases face serious penalties — up to 10 years for the two recent plea-makers and up to 15 years for others convicted as ringleaders — so enforcement must be paired with real oversight to stop this from repeating.
Hardworking Americans fund these programs through taxes, and they have every right to demand that those dollars actually help the vulnerable rather than line the pockets of grifters. It’s past time for law-and-order solutions, smarter audits, and political courage to clean up Medicaid fraud — otherwise the next $68 million will be gone before anyone notices.
