Woman faces fake nurse charges

Scheme went on 4 years and involved defrauding Medicaid, prosecutors say

An Anne Arundel County woman is charged with pretending to be a licensed nurse using a fake name for more than four years to defraud Medicaid through “thousands of claims.”

Musu Kandeh of Laurel faces four charges for what the Attorney General’s Office says was a scheme to assume the identity of “D.T.” and pretend to be a licensed nurse with Automatic Nursing Care Services in Takoma Park. The June indictment does not identify what “D.T.” stood for, only that Kandeh “did knowingly and willfully assume the identity of another person.”

Prosecutors said Kandeh also received Medicaid payments under false pretenses, saying Kandeh “provided fraudulent care to Medicaid recipients in several counties.” The office noted that Automatic Nursing Care operates in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

“The Defendant did more than steal compensation as she impacted and had an effect on the Medicaid program,” prosecutors wrote.

Kandeh is charged with felony identity theft, Medicaid fraud and theft, along with a misdemeanor offense of practicing without a license.

According to court documents, Kandeh was employed at Automatic Nursing Care Services between October 2012 and December 2016. Prosecutors say Kandeh was not licensed by the Maryland Board of Nursing to practiced registered nursing at the time.

During that time, prosecutors say, she “did steal money having a value of $100,000” or more from the employer.

In addition, prosecutors wrote in court documents that her position at the hospital “caused thousands of (Medicaid) claims to be falsely submitted which in turn were paid/reimbursed from the [state] Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.”

An attorney for Kandeh did not return calls for comment Monday. A woman who answered the phone for Automatic Nursing Care Services declined to comment.

In a motion to dismiss three charges in the case, Kandeh’s attorney, Stephen Mercer, says the identity theft, Medicaid fraud and practicing without a license charges should be dropped because the state missed a one-year statute of limitations on charging Kandeh. The scheme is alleged to end in December 2016 while Kandeh was not charged until June 2018.

In response, Assistant Attorney General Sidney Butcher wrote that Mercer is incorrectly applying misdemeanor standards to two felony crimes in identity theft and Medicaid fraud. In addition, the practicing without a license charge has an extended statute of limitations of three years after the incident to charge an individual with the crime, he wrote.

The case is set to go to trial next month, according to online court records. She faces up to 47 years in prison, according to Maryland sentencing guidelines.

A call for additional comment from the Attorney General’s Office was not returned Monday.