Owner of Essex County-Based Medical Transportation Company Admits Defrauding Medicaid

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Khalid M. Chadder, age 50, of Ticonderoga, New York, pled guilty yesterday to conspiring to defraud Medicaid.

The announcement was made by:

• United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith;
• New York State Police Superintendent Keith M. Corlett;
• James N. Hendricks, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and
• New York State Inspector General Letizia Tagliafierro.

Chadder operated Chadder Imports, Inc., d/b/a Adirondack Taxi and Limo, Inc. (“Adirondack Taxi”), a Medicaid-funded transportation company based in Ticonderoga. 

Chadder admitted that from 2015 to 2018, he committed several frauds against Medicaid and the New York State Department of Health, including: billing Medicaid and receiving payment for trips where beneficiaries drove themselves to their own medical appointments, and falsifying the identities of the drivers for those trips; and billing Medicaid and receiving payment for roundtrips to and from medical appointments when the beneficiaries took only one-way trips with Adirondack Taxi.

Chadder faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of post-imprisonment supervised release of up to 3 years, when he is sentenced on June 9, 2020 by Senior United States District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy.  A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.  Chadder has also agreed to pay $200,000 in restitution.

Chadder is the last of 6 defendants to plead guilty to federal charges in connection with a multi-agency investigation into Medicaid fraud committed by the owners and operators of medical transportation companies based in Essex County.  The following defendants have previously pled guilty:

Name	Residence	Federal charge(s)	Sentence
Arshad Nazir	Ticonderoga	Conspiracy to commit health care fraud; conspiracy to pay bribes and kickbacks to Medicaid beneficiaries	1 year and 1 day in prison, and ordered to pay $450,000 in restitution
Waqas Nauman	Queensbury, New York	Health care fraud	Time served (25 days in jail), and ordered to pay $55,000 in restitution
Khurram Gondal, aka Khurram Choudhary	Ticonderoga	Health care fraud	Time served (25 days in jail), and ordered to pay $60,000 in restitution
Qaiser Gondal	Watervliet, New York	Conspiracy to commit health care fraud	Sentencing scheduled for March 11, 2020
Anthony Armstrong	Ticonderoga	Conspiracy to commit health care fraud; conspiracy to pay bribes and kickbacks to Medicaid beneficiaries	Sentencing scheduled for March 11, 2020

These cases were investigated by the FBI, the New York State Police’s Special Investigations Unit, and the Office of the New York State Inspector General, and were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett.

Several additional agencies assisted in this investigation, including the Essex County District Attorney’s Office; New York State Police-Troop B; the Office of the New York State Comptroller, Division of Investigations; New York State Attorney General’s Office, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU); Essex County Sheriff’s Office; Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-OIG); and the New York State Department of Labor.