According to a report from Townhall, a federal indictment accuses three people connected to Quality Healthcare Services, LLC, of participating in an alleged scheme that billed D.C. Medicaid approximately $14 million.
The alleged conduct took place from January 2022 through February 2025. Quality Healthcare Services is a Washington, D.C.-based provider of mental health rehabilitative services for youth and adolescent beneficiaries from low-income families. Two defendants are company executives, while the third is a community support worker.
Mwasi Songambele, 52, a Tanzanian citizen who resides in Laurel, Maryland, is described as the company’s controlling executive. She allegedly ran the day-to-day operations and instructed employees on how to document and bill Medicaid for Mental Health Rehabilitative Services. Songambele faces one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, four healthcare fraud counts, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. She also has a pending final order of removal from the United States.
The indictment also charges Maya Cheyo, 31, of Brambleton, Virginia. Cheyo, who is also known as “Mwaya Songambele,” is Songambele’s daughter and served as Quality Healthcare Services’ Chief Operating Officer and Human Resources Director. She faces one conspiracy count and two healthcare fraud counts.
Vanessa Kuh, 29, of Lanham, Maryland, worked as a community support worker for the company. She is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and two healthcare fraud counts.
According to the indictment, Songambele, Cheyo, Kuh, and at least three unnamed co-conspirators allegedly inflated the time reported for mental health services or documented encounters that never happened. Songambele allegedly directed workers to bill four units, roughly one hour, for every telehealth encounter, even when a call lasted only a few minutes. Workers were allegedly told to choose random service times between 53 and 67 minutes so the records would look more believable to the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health. Apparently, even fraudulent paperwork needs a little stage dressing.
The indictment further alleges that Songambele instructed workers to “make sure to use” all 600 units authorized for a Medicaid consumer during a 180-day period, regardless of medical necessity or whether the services were actually performed. Cheyo and Kuh are accused of submitting, or causing others to submit, false claims for payment.
“No one stealing from taxpayer-funded programs is safe. As alleged, these defendants treated Medicaid as a personal piggy bank in a scheme that caused millions in losses, billing for services never provided while funding luxury vehicles and other extravagant purchases,” said U.S. Attorney Pirro. “We will continue to uncover and prosecute fraud until these schemes are dismantled and taxpayer dollars are protected from abuse.”
The indictment seeks forfeiture of several luxury vehicles, including multiple Mercedes-Benz models, a 2023 Rover Defender, a home on the 7000 block of Tranquility Road in Laurel, Maryland, and a Panthere De Cartier Watch, Medium Model. Medicaid is supposed to fund care, not become an all-you-can-bill shopping account.
The FBI Washington Field Office, the D.C. Office of the Inspector General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Facci is prosecuting the case. The Department of Justice announced the National Fraud Enforcement Division on April 7, saying its work supports President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance.
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