https://www.hometownlife.com/story/news/local/northville/2024/02/06/livonia-shring-home-care-fraud-sentence-yogesh-pancholi-northville/72490025007/

DETROIT — A Northville man was sentenced Jan. 30 to nine years in prison for orchestrating a nearly $2.8 million health care and wire fraud conspiracy, engaging in money laundering, aggravated identity theft, and witness tampering, federal officials said.

In September 2023, a federal jury in the Eastern District of Michigan convicted Yogesh K. Pancholi, 43, an Indian national living in Northville, of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud, two counts of health care fraud, two counts of money laundering, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of witness tampering.

Pancholi owned and operated Shring Home Care Inc., 23801 5 Mile Road in Livonia, a home health company based in Livonia, the Department of Justice said in a release. Despite being excluded from billing Medicare, Pancholi purchased Shring using the names, signatures and personal identifying information of others to conceal his ownership of the company.

In a two-month period, Pancholi and his co-conspirators billed and were paid nearly $2.8 million by Medicare for services that were never provided. The press release does not identify Pancholi's co-conspirators or the state whether they were charged in the case.

Pancholi then transferred the funds through bank accounts belonging to shell corporations and eventually into his accounts in India, the release said.

After being indicted, and on the eve of trial, Pancholi, using a pseudonym, wrote false and malicious emails to various federal government agencies alleging a government witness had committed various crimes and should not be allowed to remain in the United States in an attempt to keep the witness from testifying.