PHOENIX — Twenty people, a mental health business and a church were charged in an indictment that alleged Arizona's Medicaid program was defrauded $60 million in a scheme involving billing for mental health treatment and addiction rehabilitation, the latest indictment in a series of crackdowns in the state focusing on sober living homes.
The indictment announced Tuesday alleged Happy House Behavioral Health LLC was paid the money for services that were either never provided or only partially completed and that there was billing for clients who were deceased and incarcerated.
Authorities say sober living homes referred clients to the behavioral health business, which received money from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System and then paid the homes for the clients in violation of state law.
Money laundering charges alleged Happy House Behavioral Health paid $5 million in July 2023 to a Hope of Life International Church, which later wired $2 million to an entity in Rwanda.
The charges against Happy House Behavioral Health include conspiracy, fraud, forgery, theft and money laundering.
The Associated Press left an email with a lawyer representing Happy House Behavioral Health.
In a statement, Hope of Life International Church said it was unjustly charged with money laundering for accepting a donation from a licensed sober living facility that was a tenant of the church and was later accused of defrauding the state's Medicaid program. The church said it didn't have access to the sober living facility's internal operations, financial practices or management decisions.
''The church's only relationship was that of a landlord and, later, as a recipient of a donation — a donation accepted in good faith, consistent with its mission and longstanding practice,'' the statement said.