It's not just Minneapolis, and it's not just childrens' daycares that are riddled with fraud. Two women in Brooklyn have pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicaid of $68 million by running adult daycare centers where services were never provided.
🚨🇺🇸 BROOKLYN DAYCARE SCAMMERS PLEAD GUILTY TO $68M MEDICAID FRAUD
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) January 16, 2026
Two women in Brooklyn just admitted to running a $68M scam billing Medicaid for adult daycare services they never provided.
Paid kickbacks to patients, laundered the money through shell companies.
This is the… pic.twitter.com/k1apTZsOYK
… same playbook as Minneapolis - fake care centers billing taxpayers for phantom services.
The program they hit: CDPAP, where people with minimal healthcare experience get paid by Medicaid to care for relatives. Hundreds of "middleman" firms act as payroll agents with almost zero oversight.
It's basically a government ATM if you know how to game it.
They're forking over $1M, facing 10 years max. That's $68M stolen, $1M returned. Math works if you don't get caught.
Source: DOJ, New York Post
Big Medicaid scammers just pled guilty https://t.co/I9KKKs9w0R
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 17, 2026
The Department of Justice released a statement this week:
Two defendants pleaded guilty today to conspiring to defraud Medicaid by paying health care kickbacks for services that were not provided at two Brooklyn social adult day cares and a home health care company.
“The defendants were large-scale recruiters who bribed patients with laundered cash and billed Medicaid over $68 million for services that were not provided,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Today’s guilty pleas demonstrate the Department’s longstanding commitment to rooting out fraud in government health care programs by aggressively prosecuting those who steal from taxpayer-funded programs.”
…
According to court documents, Manal Wasef, 46, and Elaine Antao, 46, both of Brooklyn, were marketers and recruiters for two social adult day cares: Happy Family Social Adult Day Care Center Inc. and Family Social Adult Day Care Center Inc., as well as Responsible Care Staffing Inc., a home health care fiscal intermediary. Between approximately October 2017 and July 2024, in exchange for illegal kickbacks and bribes, Wasef and Antao referred Medicaid recipients to the social adult day cares and the home health company. The defendants also paid illegal kickbacks and bribes to Medicaid recipients for social adult day care services and home health care services that were billed to Medicaid but were not provided or that were induced by kickbacks and bribes. Wasef and Antao used multiple business entities to launder the fraud proceeds and generate the cash used to pay kickbacks and bribes. In connection with their guilty pleas, Wasef and Antao agreed to collectively forfeit approximately $1 million. Wasef and Antao are the sixth and seventh individuals, respectively, to plead guilty in this case.
Wasef and Antao pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Antao is scheduled to be sentenced on May 20 and Wasef is scheduled to be sentenced on May 27. They each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
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This is the biggest issue going into the midterms, @elonmusk
— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) January 17, 2026
Expose the fraud. Win the midterms.
The amount of money in these fraud cases is insane
— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) January 17, 2026
New York City has more fraud than any other city in the US.
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) January 17, 2026
Mayor Mamdani will get right on it, we're sure.
"Adult daycare" got expensive! 🤯
— NoBanks Nearby 👉 hellomaite.com (@NoBanksNearby) January 16, 2026
When’s the sentencing and are we getting our money back?
— MAGA’s the Fix™ (@Honesttruthman) January 17, 2026
Absolutely agree, Elon. $68M stolen from taxpayers for fake daycare services is just the tip. Medicaid fraud is completely out of control — time to shut these scams down hard. 💯
— 𝕄𝔸𝕋ℝ𝕀𝕏 (@matrixmurals) January 17, 2026
Guilty is nice, but can we recover the money and/or assets? At the end of the day, that’s what it was all about.
— McQuig’s Pig (@Frozen_Gophers) January 17, 2026
If they serve 18 months and drive from jail in a G-Wagon to their multi-million dollar house, what has been accomplished?
Probably just the tip of the iceberg. Hopefully their penalties include confiscation of all money and assets
— AJH - Question Everything (@1_2_question) January 17, 2026
I had to spend an hour this morning reapplying for my Medicaid, I guess being poor, a 61-yr old deaf widow that gets less than 30K a year, has them thinking I am living a champagne life.
— Santel Jones (@SantelJonesB4L) January 17, 2026
And that’s only 2 scammers. Imagine the whole state of New York
— Sdx Tesla NYC (@SdxTeslaNYC) January 17, 2026
We need more than citizen journalists knocking on the doors of these "daycares."
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