DOJ Unveils $12 Million Medicaid Fraud Scheme Tied to Violence and Racketeering
The Justice Department filed a nine-count indictment against four New York men for a $12 million Medicaid fraud conspiracy that includes racketeering, firearms and violent offenses, with three suspects arrested and one still at large.
Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald announced a nine-count federal indictment charging four New York men with a multi-year Medicaid fraud operation worth roughly $12 million. The scheme, conducted through a Bronx organization dubbed the “War Room” that operated under the Forward Foundation charity, involved enrolling Medicaid-eligible patients for reimbursable medical-transport rides that never occurred, falsifying GPS data to create hundreds of phantom trips, and providing cash and narcotics kickbacks to the patients.
From 2023 through 2025 the group allegedly laundered the illicit earnings and engaged in violent acts, including a January 2024 home-invasion robbery of a competing fraud ring in Teaneck, New Jersey. Three participants—Louis Trejo, Kenneth Garner and Erihk Belis—were arrested and arraigned in the Southern District of New York; the fourth, Harold Stevenson, is still at large. The case comes amid a broader Trump-appointed anti-fraud effort, including a task force led by JD Vance and a recent nationwide health-care fraud crackdown. Prosecutors highlighted the link between benefits fraud and violent criminal networks in their statement.
Why it matters
The case shows how Medicaid fraud can intersect with organized crime and violent activity, threatening vulnerable patients and public health funds.
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