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The husband of a woman who already pleaded guilty in a multimillion dollar Medicaid fraud case pleaded guilty to similar charges today in United States federal court in Raleigh.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina said in a press release that Timothy Mark Harron, 52, of Las Vegas, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and aggravated identity theft. He also agreed to forfeit the proceeds of his crimes.  

In addition to cash, the forfeitable property included the defendant’s interest in a British Aerospace Bae 125-800A aircraft, a 2017 Aston Martin DB 11 sports car; a 2016 Ford F-150 Supercrew pickup; real property held in the name of Assured Healthcare Systems in Hertford County; real property located in Charles County, Maryland; as well as other items of designer jewelry and luxury items seized from the defendant’s penthouse condominium in Las Vegas.

Mr. Harron admitted to conspiring with his wife, Latisha Harron, to carry out a massive fraud upon the North Carolina Medicaid program by billing the government for fictitious home health services.  

He further admitted to working with his wife to launder the proceeds of the fraud into, among other things, a private jet, luxury jewelry and clothing, and properties in Ahoskie and Rich Square.  

Mrs. Harron has already pleaded guilty to similar charges and is awaiting sentencing.

According to the charges, Mrs. Harron created, and was operating, Agape Healthcare Systems, an alleged Medicaid home health provider in Roanoke Rapids.  

As charged, to enroll Agape as a Medicaid provider, she  fraudulently concealed her prior felony conviction for identity theft.  

In 2012 the Harrons moved out of North Carolina to Maryland.  

Despite that move, they continued to bill Medicaid as though Agape was providing home health services to North Carolina recipients.

In May of 2017, Mrs. Harron moved to Las Vegas to live with Mr. Harron, whom she married in 2018.

The indictment said that Mr. Harron was also a previously convicted felon, and that this fact was concealed from Medicaid on enrollment documents.  

Mr. Harron pleaded guilty to allegations that he and his wife worked together to expand the Agape fraud upon Medicaid — fraudulently billing the program for millions in just the few years in which he participated in the scheme. 

Mr. Harron admitted that he and his wife carried out the fraud by exploiting an eligibility tool that was entrusted only to Medicaid providers.  

Specifically, the Harrons searched publicly available sources, such as obituary postings on the internet by North Carolina funeral homes, to locate recently deceased North Carolinians.  

He admitted that the two would then extract from the obituary postings certain personal information for the deceased, including their name, date of birth, and date of death.  

Then, utilizing the extracted information, the defendants would query the Medicaid eligibility tool to determine whether the deceased individual had a Medicaid identification number.  

If the deceased North Carolinian had a valid number and was otherwise eligible for Medicaid coverage during their life, the defendants would use that individual’s identity to back bill Medicaid, through Agape, for up to one year of fictitious home health services that were allegedly rendered prior to the death of the individual.  

Medicaid then dispersed millions to Agape, all of which flowed into accounts controlled by the Harrons.

The fraud was carried out via the internet from locations around the globe, including their corporate office building in Las Vegas, their penthouse condominium in Las Vegas, a corporate office in North Carolina, and from various hotels and luxury resorts in and outside of the United States.

Mr. Harron further pleaded guilty to laundering the proceeds of the Agape fraud into various luxury items.  

These expenses included a $900,000 wire for the purchase of a British Aerospace Bae 125-800A private jet, hundreds of thousands of dollars in Tiffany & Co. and Brioni clothing and jewelry, thousands of dollars on Eastern North Carolina business properties, and thousands of dollars in gym equipment.

The conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud carries a maximum punishment of up to 20 years in prison. The aggravated identity theft carries a maximum punishment of not less than, nor more than two years in prison consecutive to other sentences, and the conspiracy to commit money laundering count carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison.

United States District Judge Richard E. Myers II accepted the plea.  

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office Medicaid Investigations Division, are all investigating the case.  

Assistant United States Attorney William M. Gilmore is the prosecutor on this case.  Assistant United States Attorney John Harris represents the United States with respect to forfeiture aspects of the case.