SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — A Schenectady County business owner has pleaded guilty to Medicaid fraud, per the New York State Comptroller’s Office. Muhammad Adnan Saeed, 40, owner of Sublime Medical Transportation, allegedly stole over $700,000 from New York’s Medicaid program.

“I think it was a conclusion, by the defense attorney, that this was not a real defensible case because of the strength of the evidence that we were able to gather about systematic fraud,” said Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney.

Sublime Medical Transportation is a Schenectady County company enrolled in Medicaid as a participant in transporting program beneficiaries. The Comptroller’s Office said Saeed inflated Medicaid bills by saying group rides were separate, individual rides to get mileage payments for each person in the group.

William Lemon, Assistant District Attorney, Bureau Chief of Financial Crimes tells NEWS10’s James De La Fuente the business owner preyed upon the vulnerable population of people recovering from addiction. He went to explain the crime has serious and far-reaching implications for everyone, not just those using the service. “It’s one of the reasons why Medicaid is so costly,” said Lemon.

He says it all started with one little lead by saying, “Once you get a lead that a company is engaged in fraudulent conduct, all it takes is looking beneath the surface of what’s happening. All of these riders who are going to clinics, there’s a paper trail of where they were, what they were getting.”  

The D.A.’s office thinks that the county should be more involved when it comes to monitoring Medicaid provided services throughout the county. “Clearly, there is a disconnect with how the program is being administered and these companies are exploiting that fact,” said Lemon.

To which Carney said, “It’s our impression that this situation blew up statewide when the state started to take over this from localities. And there’s less local control. The comptrollers are able to do a lot in terms of authority to get records.”

The investigation revealed that in four years of Sublime Medical Transportation operations, there were more than 2,500 rides that were billed fraudulently. That accounts for nearly 85% of the Medicaid claims submitted by the company.

“The way these trips are set up is through a third party that the state is contracted with. And I think my view of it is, is the outsourcing of that, you know, trip appointment party, there’s not enough obligation on them to do anything to identify fraud, to detect fraud or say, hey, this is unusual,” explained Lemon.

The Comptroller’s Office said that Saeed also applied for and unlawfully collected state unemployment insurance benefits while running Sublime and making $88,500 as a driver for his company. Saeed pleaded guilty in Schenectady County Court on Thursday to two counts of second-degree grand larceny.

Saheed is looking at up to nine years in prison and must pay full restitution totaling nearly $700,000 dollars. He is expected to be sentenced on May 23.

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