A couple searched obituaries in their scheme to steal millions of dollars from the Medicaid program in North Carolina, reports the Raleigh News & Observer. Latisha Harron, 44, and Timothy Mark Harron, 50, face federal charges after prosecutors say they bought high-end items with money intended for low-income people or those with disabilities. “The indictment alleges a $13 million fraud that funded a gluttonous, social media-marketed lifestyle — one filled with private jets, penthouses and luxury resorts,” said U.S. Attorney Robert Higdon.
Prosecutors say Latisha Harron ran Agape Healthcare Systems, Inc., a supposed Medicaid home health provider” in Roanoke Rapids, 80 miles northeast of Raleigh. She continued to bill North Carolina Medicaid after she moved to Maryland in 2012, officials say. Five years later, she moved to Nevada and started teaming with Timothy Harron. The Harrons “worked together to expand the Agape fraud upon NC Medicaid, by fraudulently billing the program for more than $10 million, just in the period between 2017 and 2019,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said. Prosecutors say the couple looked up funeral home postings to get details about people who recently died. If someone qualified for Medicaid, the Harrons allegedly used that person’s information to “back-bill” the North Carolina program, falsely claiming the person had received care at Agape before death. The couple who used the proceeds to buy a $900,000 private jet, designer clothes and jewelry, and properties in Eastern North Carolina.