Two former owners of 1st Adult N Pediatric Healthcare pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to commit federal healthcare fraud. Kafomdi “Josephine” Okocha, 49, and Samuel Okocha, 52, both of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. At sentencing, both defendants face a penalty of up to 8 years in prison. The defendants were charged in March 2025 along with Carolyn Bryant-Taylor, 61, of Clinton, Maryland; Shekita Gore, a.k.a. Shekita Steele, 38, of Clinton, Maryland; Elizabeth Ilome, 41, of Stafford, Virginia; and Eno Utuk, 47, of Stafford, Virginia. According to court documents, Bryant-Taylor, Josephine Okocha, and Samuel Okocha were owners and operators of 1st Adult N Pediatric Healthcare Service, a Medicaid-enrolled home health agency providing private duty nursing, personal care, and respite care services throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, including in the Western District of Virginia.
Gore was the director of nursing, while Utuk and Ilome were employed by 1st Adult to provide nursing and personal care. The defendants conspired to submit false claims to Medicaid for services that were not provided to patients, including falsifying records and documentation in support of the fraudulent claims submitted for reimbursement. As part of this scheme, between 2017 and 2023, Bryant-Taylor and her co-defendant, Josephine Okocha, planned arrangements to pay the parents or guardians of patients in exchange for blank, signed nursing notes which would be filled out and used to support billing to Medicaid. In these arrangements, the amount billed to Medicaid either reflected nursing services that were not provided at all, or an amount of nursing services that was in excess of what was provided.