A Southern California woman represented by the Hirst Law Group in Davis will share in a multimillion-dollar settlement in a whistleblower fraud case, the details of which were unsealed this week in U.S. District Court in Sacramento.
Beverly McCaffery alleged in a federal False Claims Act complaint that two home-based service providers for clients with developmental disabilities knowingly and routinely defrauded the California Department of Social Services by submitting claims for services that were never performed.
The complaint targeted Alternative Learning Center of Oakland and its owner/president, Alice Soard, as well as Palm Springs-based Adult Educational Technologies and its owner/executive director, Wendell James.
ALC and AET were authorized to provide services to individuals with developmental disabilities under Medicaid’s “1915(c) waiver” program, which enables disabled persons to live in the community instead of being institutionalized. The program facilitates the provision of services such as homemaking, personal care and habilitation.
In her lawsuit, McCaffery, who formerly worked for ALC, alleged that she and others were instructed to falsify records and create false evidence of services that were never provided to individuals with developmental disabilities. Fake time logs listed services with false dates and times, and provided the names of fictitious staff members who supposedly provided care.
For example, the complaint alleged that Soard’s house cleaner, who speaks no English, and her daughter were among the fictitious staff members who were represented as providing needed help to developmentally disabled individuals.
“This case demonstrates the significance of having an insider willing to blow the whistle,” said Michael Hirst, McCaffery’s attorney. “If it weren’t for Ms. McCaffery, the false billings would likely have continued and the government would not have realized that it was paying for services that were never provided.”
Under the settlement agreement, each of the defendants has agreed to pay the United States and the state of California the following: Alternative Learning Center: $562,000; Soard: $159,600; Adult Educational Technologies: $322,500; and James: $107,500.
In addition, Soard agreed to sell her house in Oakland, currently valued at $1.34 million, and transfer the net proceeds from the sale as part of the settlement to repay the government, according to the agreement.
“The return of much-needed funds to this program is crucial,” Hirst said. “Especially in times of reduced federal and state payments for these kinds of services, those willing to blow the whistle make a huge difference.”
As the whistleblower, McCaffery will receive 20 percent of the payments to the United States and 24 percent of payments to California, including proceeds from the sale of Soard’s house and all interest payments required under the settlement.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene