Attorney General’s office indicts Waltham medical transport firm, former owner in $770K Medicaid fraud case

A Waltham-based nonemergency medical transportation company and its former owner have been indicted in connection with an alleged $770,000 Medicaid fraud and money laundering scheme, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office announced on Feb. 10.

A Statewide Grand Jury returned indictments against Bakali Mukasa, 44, formerly of Billerica, and his now-defunct company, JBM Health and Educational Services Inc., on charges of Medicaid false claims, larceny over $1,200 and money laundering.

Prosecutors say Mukasa and JBM billed MassHealth for more than 16,000 nonemergency transportation rides that were never provided between July 2019 and November 2020. The company claimed to transport MassHealth members to methadone clinics for opioid addiction treatment, but investigators found that many of those patients had received “take-home” methadone orders and did not attend in-person appointments. Nearly 100 of the billed rides were allegedly for deceased members.

According to investigators, MassHealth paid JBM and Mukasa more than $770,000 for the fraudulent rides. The AG’s office alleges Mukasa laundered the proceeds through a network of bank, real estate and investment accounts under other individuals’ names before transferring more than $1 million to Uganda, where he now lives.

“These indictments underscore our office’s commitment to protecting state resources and holding accountable those who defraud MassHealth,” Campbell said in a statement announcing the charges.

The case is part of ongoing enforcement efforts targeting fraud by nonemergency medical transportation providers. In the past two years the AG’s office has brought or settled several similar cases, including a $1 million settlement with a Worcester County provider and a $380,000 settlement with a Swampscott company accused of false billing.

The investigation was led by Assistant Attorney General Scott Grannemann and a team from the AG’s Medicaid Fraud Division, with assistance from MassHealth, the Montachusett Regional Transit Authority and the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office.