A Brooklyn owner of two social adult day care centers pleaded guilty in federal court to a conspiracy that targeted New York Medicaid with roughly $65 million in claims for care prosecutors say was never delivered. Ahsan Ijaz, 29, of Brooklyn, admitted to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Court documents identify him as an owner of Happy Family Social Adult Day Care Center Inc. and Family Social Adult Day Care Center Inc., both located in Brooklyn, and of Responsible Care Staffing Inc., a home health care fiscal intermediary that processed payments under the state’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program.
The Justice Department said the businesses paid cash kickbacks and bribes to Medicaid recipients to induce enrollment, then billed the program for social adult day care services and home health care services that were not provided. In some instances the claims covered periods when the recipients were outside the United States. The conduct spanned approximately seven years. Ijaz is the tenth defendant to plead guilty in the investigation.
His sentencing is scheduled for March 10, 2027. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. A federal judge will set the actual term after considering the sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. The guilty plea establishes Ijaz’s admission to the conspiracy.
Descriptions of the broader operation come from court documents and Justice Department statements in the related cases. The same businesses sit at the center of a larger prosecution that began with an indictment unsealed in Brooklyn in October 2024. That charging document accused eight people of defrauding Medicaid of approximately $68 million through kickbacks for services that were not provided.
Zakia Khan, the other principal owner, pleaded guilty in August 2025 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay health care kickbacks. In September 2026 a judge sentenced her to 76 months in prison, ordered restitution of more than $56 million, and required forfeiture of $5 million. The forfeited assets included two properties, cash, and gold jewelry seized during a search of her home.
Justice Department accounts of her case state that Happy Family and Family Social billed Medicaid approximately $64 million between 2017 and 2024 and that Medicaid paid approximately $56 million on those claims. Khan also controlled Tanwee Services Inc., an entity prosecutors said was used to receive and disguise fraud proceeds. According to the government, marketers and recruiters referred Medicaid recipients to the day care centers and the home health company in exchange for illegal payments. The recipients themselves received cash to enroll.
The companies then submitted claims for social adult day care attendance and for personal assistance services under the consumer directed program even though the services were not provided as represented or were induced by the kickbacks. Multiple business entities were used to move the proceeds and to generate the cash that funded the payments to recruiters and recipients. Earlier filings alleged that Khan, Ijaz, and others signed provider agreements with managed long term care plans while the kickback arrangements continued.
Other defendants who have pleaded guilty include marketers Manal Wasef and Elaine Antao. Both admitted in January 2026 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, agreed to forfeit approximately $1 million combined, and face maximum sentences of 10 years. Additional guilty pleas have come from people prosecutors described as managers and participants in the referral network.
The original indictment also charged conspiracy to commit money laundering against several defendants, including Ijaz, based on the alleged use of business entities to conceal proceeds and produce cash for bribes. Ijaz’s plea resolved the health care fraud conspiracy count. Investigators from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, Homeland Security Investigations in New York, and the New York Police Department developed the case.
Prosecutors from the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division Health Care Fraud Section, with forfeiture assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, are handling the matter. The admissions and court records portray a system in which public payments intended for daytime support of older adults and for in home assistance were converted into cash distributions and concealed transfers, while the billed services went unperformed.
