East Africans arrested in Arizona rehab insurance frauds scandal

Several East Africans have been caught up in a web of fraudulent activities meant to defraud the Arizona State’s Medicaid systems of hundreds of millions in sobriety clinic insurance. Six Rwandan citizens and at least one Uganda pastor are among 45 persons so far arrested in Phoenix, Arizona.

The Rwandans were: Vestine Mukarukundo, Jean Bosco Nsabimana, Willy Rutayisire, Pierrette Kagame, Muhumure Nzabakiza and Immaculate Mutesi.  The fraud involved these arrested Rwandan referring persons deemed to be addicted to substance use, largely indigenous people to sobriety clinics for alleged medical support.

For these referrals, these individuals were paid large sums of money out of the Medicare insurance claims for services that were often not rendered. Arizona Police sources said that Vestine Mukarukundo confessed to having been paid up to $300,000 within three months for referring clients (patients) to at least six sobriety clinics.

These sobriety clinics are rehabilitation centers where people who are in recovery live a life free of drug or alcohol use.

In September 2023, Pastor Robert Kayongo, a Ugandan was arrested following an undercover deal set up by special agents in which Pastor Kayongo was to bring eight patients to a sobriety clinic and get paid $30,000 a month. This ultimately led to Kayongo’s arrest. The pastor is based in California, where is presides over the Revival Power Ministries with a branch in Phoenix.

Kayongo is suspected of being one of many criminals masquerading as health providers who defrauded Arizona taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars and victimized Indigenous people. The illegal activity involved billing for mental health treatment and addiction rehabilitation that never was provided. The money, which was in the hundreds of millions, was paid out by the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, Arizona’s Medicaid program.

In some cases, the treatment was reportedly provided to people who were dead, were in jail, or who were children. The criminals operating the fake treatment centers targeted vulnerable Indigenous Arizonans, aggressively recruiting them at places like gas stations, grocery store parking lots, and bus stops outside of Indian Health Service clinics.

In several incidences, the Indigenous people who were targeted had to jump out windows and climb over walls to escape the facilities, which typically were located in the Phoenix area. The investigation, which involved the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, has resulted in at least 45 indictments and $75 million has been seized or recovered related to the schemes, said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.

Sources in Phoenix indicate that several other East Africans, including Ugandans, had left their jobs in other parts of the US and travelled to Arizona to set up sobriety clinics, many of which were operating illegally. “Some were arrested, many others left to return to their previous employment or try something different,’ the sources in Phoenix said.

Back in early August, without notice, Kayongo walked into Recovery Syndicate, a behavioral health outpatient facility in Chandler, using his title as a pastor. "He had stated that he had a church in California and one here in Arizona," Lucinda Anderson said. She's the director of business development at Recovery Syndicate.

According to Fox 10, Kayongo met with management and the owners of the Recovery Syndicate facility. Court documents say Kayongo claimed to help indigenous people across the Valley, partnering with programs to house ‘clients’in the Chandler area. The pastor offered five patients in exchange for "financials," Anderson said.

Kayongo initially told the Recovery Syndicate owners that his sober living home was licensed, but later admitted it was not, investigators say. The management of the Recovery Syndicate facility told him what he was doing was illegal and tipped off the Police.

Fox 10 reports that two weeks later, the attorney general’s undercover agent set up Kayongo.  They told him that a behavioral health outpatient facility set to open that required patients. Investigators say Kayongo proposed eight to ten clients and both parties decided on $750 per patient, per week. He later changed his mind and demanded $1050 per patient per week. Then Police pounced on him.

Kayongo’s facility was called ‘Shared Love’ but it was not only illegal and not licensed but it was in squalid conditions where patients lived like animals.

Investigators say Kayongo is in essence a patient broker in a scheme targeting vulnerable people who need behavioral health treatment, offering food and housing at unlicensed sober living homes.

Pastor Kayongo was charged by a grand jury, accused of conspiracy and attempting to commit patient referral fraud. He posted a $50,000 bond.

The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, better known as AHCCCS, suspended payments to more than 100 care providers suspected of scamming the state out of hundreds of millions of dollars while victimizing thousands of Native Americans, officials said.

State, federal and tribal officials said operators of fraudulent sober living homes raked in taxpayer dollars by recruiting Native Americans to enter the facilities and then billing for treatment that was never provided.  

Rather than providing legitimate healthcare, the fraudulent facilities in many cases fed tribal members’ addictions or substance problems in order to keep them under control and at the facilities, officials said.