Milwaukee Woman Charged With Defrauding State of $2.2 Million
Debbie Long, 44, charged with 5 felonies for defrauding Wisconsin Medicaid.
Milwaukee County Courthouse. Gretchen Brown/WPR
A Milwaukee woman is facing felony charges for allegedly defrauding Wisconsin Medicaid of over $2 million.
Debbie Long, 44, owned Pinnacle Home Health Care, LLC, a company that offered “personal care services” to members of Medicaid, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday. The felony charges are focused on Long’s operations from 2017 to 2022.
“The State alleges that she defrauded Wisconsin Medicaid of almost $2.2 million by billing for personal care services which did not take place,” the complaint said.
The complaint said she also, “fraudulently obtained a $219,072 loan from the Paycheck Protection Program by inflating the size of Pinnacle’s workforce and payroll expenses.”
“Lastly, the State alleges that Long used the proceeds from her unlawful activities to purchase a restaurant, a car, and a car wash,” the complaint said. “As for the purchase of the car and car wash, Long helped funnel her ill-gotten gains through several shell companies in a series of transactions designed to conceal the origin of the funds.”
Prosecutors allege she used a variety of methods to defraud the state’s Medicaid system, including billing for personal care services that could not have happened.
“In total, Pinnacle was paid more than $1.57 million in connection with claims for personal care services that were either impossible or improbable,” the complaint said.
She also allegedly billed for services that were never rendered, billed for services in higher amounts and billed for travel expenses that were “never incurred.”
Prosecutors also allege she defrauded the Paycheck Protection Program, a federal program that was created during the COVID-19 pandemic. The complaint said Long submitted a fraudulent application to that program in May of 2020.
In her application, Long said Pinnacle Home Health Care, LLC, had 120 employees and a monthly payroll that averaged nearly $90,000 a month, according to the complaint. However, that information was, “directly contradicted by the information Pinnacle provided to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) for the same timeframe,” the complaint said.
Long allegedly used the funds from the PPP loan and from her Medicaid reimbursements to buy Kitt’s Frozen Custard, a Milwaukee business.
“Long also helped direct money, obtained from her scheme to defraud Wisconsin Medicaid, from Pinnacle through three shell companies and her own bank accounts to fund the purchase of a Mercedes Benz AMG S63 and an Octopus Car Wash,” the complaint said. “Long, along with her husband, moved the money around through numerous transactions designed to conceal the origin, ownership, and control of the proceeds.”
Long was charged with one count of fraud against a financial institution, one count of theft by fraud, one count of wire fraud against a financial institution, one count of money laundering and another count of money laundering as party to a crime. All of those charges are felonies.
She will make her initial appearance in court on July 16, according to online records.
Milwaukee woman charged for allegedly defrauding state’s Medicaid system of over $2M was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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