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Refugees were pawns in fraud case

By Guillermo Contreras and Vincent T. Davis- Express-News
Web Posted: 07/01/2010 12:00 CDT

As Hassan Abdirahman spent a day with his family, a man strolled by his San Antonio apartment complex
and offered to get medicine for his three children when they needed it.

But Abdirahman, 45, whose family is among hundreds of refugees from Somalia, didn't quite grasp the
details.

What he could make out was that if he provided his children's Medicaid information, dates of birth and
Social Security numbers, the visitor would give him $20 — purportedly for gas so he could visit the man's
pharmacy.

Abdirahman supplied the information but heard nothing more after the visit in 2007 — until law officers
stopped by.

They were investigating allegations that Abdirahman's visitor, local pharmacist Marcelleus J. Anunobi, had
been soliciting people for similar information that the agents say he used to commit up to $2.5 million in
Medicaid fraud.

Abdirahman is one of several people subpoenaed this week to testify in the case of Anunobi, who since
2007 owned the now-closed Advanced Doctor's Prescribed Pharmacy on Medical Drive.

Anunobi, 46, is charged with Medicaid fraud, theft and insurance fraud. He is scheduled for trial July 19
before 227th District Judge Philip Kazen in a case in which officials allege he exploited people's
vulnerabilities — such as refugees' lack of knowledge of U.S. laws and customs.

He's also accused of filing false Medicaid prescription claims under doctors' names for patients they'd
never treated.

Like Abdirahman, members of 19 other refugee families gave up Medicaid numbers or were approached
by Anunobi, according to staff with Family Service Association, which helps refugees.

Isha Hussein, who lives at the Wurzbach Manor complex near Abdirahman, said her husband turned
Anunobi away when he knocked on their door at the gated complex.

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“The first time the man came, he said he didn't want” the information, Hussein said as her four children
listened. “He's not a good man; (my husband) didn't trust him.”

Abdirahman said his children never received any medication, and he never set foot in Anunobi's
pharmacy.

“I don't even know where it is,” Abdirahman said through an interpreter Wednesday.

The pharmacy closed in the wake of the investigation by the Texas attorney general, the FBI and the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General.

“He was getting (Medicaid) numbers any way he could,” First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg
alleged. “He'd knock on the doors and say, ‘Hi, I want to be your pharmacist. To get your business, I'll give
you $20 as an incentive. ... Give me your Medicaid number.'”

Anunobi, who holds dual U.S. and Nigerian citizenship, denies he intended to defraud anyone. His
lawyers, Alex Scharff and Alan Brown, said they have offered to work with prosecutors so Anunobi can
pay back what he “may have over-billed.”

Anunobi, a graduate of Howard University in Washington who also holds degrees in zoology and
medicine, aims to convince a Bexar County jury it's all a misunderstanding — that he billed for medicine
that patients never picked up.

If convicted, he could face five to 99 years in prison.

“We have consistently been asking for a firm figure of how much money was lost so we can make some
restitution,” Scharff said. “Mr. Anunobi will agree he's not the best businessman. There was some sloppy
record-keeping. But he wasn't intending to defraud anybody. He agrees there may have been some
over-billing, but we don't agree it was $2.5 million. That (represents) all the billings he ever did.”

Scharff and Brown said they were unaware of the allegations that Anunobi went door-to-door.

“My only response to that is Mr. Anunobi had very good intentions,” Scharff said. “Some of the money he
made he sent back to Nigeria to help people over there.”

Adriana Biggs, chief of the DA's white-collar-crimes division, said the Medicaid program paid more than
$1 million of the $2.5 million in claims that Anunobi filed, but the payouts were stopped once suspicions
arose.

A search warrant affidavit agents used to raid the pharmacy in 2008 said that Sharon Gaskill, a
pharmacist with the program that processes Medicaid claims, found discrepancies in Anunobi's billings for
Zofran, which is mostly used for nausea resulting from chemotherapy.

Later, Gaskill checked with doctors who were listed in Anunobi's billings as having prescribed medications
for Anunobi's purported customers. The doctors said the people were not their patients or that they never
prescribed the medications in question.

Investigators also froze more than $1 million in Anunobi's accounts, Brown said.

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In another affidavit, an investigator alleged that after Anunobi was arrested in August 2008 and released
on bond, he went back to work at his pharmacy the next day and submitted more fraudulent Medicaid
billings.

At Wurzbach Manor on Wednesday, members of Family Service Association checked on the refugees
and said they will help them as they are called to testify.

The case has highlighted the need for classes that might help the refugees should they encounter
someone asking them for their personal information, said Xochitl Cortez Davis, vice president of
communications and marketing for FSA.

“Our role is to ... make sure they know that, whether it's about their Social Security number or Medicaid
information, it should remain private.”

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