FBI offers $5k for arrest of Ghanaian over $2m fraud

The FBI has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Baffour E. Opoku on federal Medicaid fraud charges.

The warrant was issued on October 22, 2014 for the arrest of Opoku after he and nine other people were indicted on the charges in a federal court, according to an FBI news release.

The indictment charges Opoku and the associates of Progressive Counselling Services with defrauding Medicaid of more than $2 million.

Opoku faces 101 counts on a 105-count indictment. The associates were arrested in late October.

Opoku, a citizen of Ghana, reportedly lives in Virginia Beach in the United States of America. Baffour E. Opoku, 48, is the owner and operator of Progressive Counseling Services, LLC.

They have been identified as Doretha Selby-Diggs, 40, of Portsmouth, Virginia; Lisa Barrett, 49, of Norfolk; Barbara Bing Banks, 34, of Hampton, Virginia; Corey Etheridge, 42, of Chesapeake, Virginia; Jacqueline Harris, 34, of Portsmouth; Verline Harris, 48, of Virginia Beach; Arlette Johnson, 58, of Virginia Beach; Alfreda Stallion, 52, of Virginia Beach; and Johnny Stallion, 34, of Las Vegas, Nevada.

According to a release, the 105-count indictment says the defendants conspired to obtain reimbursement payments from the Virginia Medical Assistance Program by submitting false claims for health support services in 2011 and 2012.

Opoku also faces charges that he failed to report nearly $450,000 in taxable income to the IRS over two tax years and that Opoku, along with Doretha Selby-Diggs and Corey Etheridge, submitted false documents to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security, with respect to a pending immigration matter. The indictment further alleges that Lisa Barrett, Barbara Bing, Jacqueline Harris, and Arlette Johnson testified falsely before a federal grand jury that was investigating this matter.