41-year-old Ashley Cross was convicted by a federal jury on May 17, 2024 in Charlotte, NC. Ashley was a Charlotte behavioral health services provider that falsely obtained COVID-19 relief funds.
Ashley was found guilty of healthcare fraud and making false statements relating to healthcare matters. Click here to see other federal stories in and near Charlotte.
According to trial evidence Ashley owned and operated Odyssey Health Group which is a Charlotte based company that was enrolled with South Carolina Medicaid to provide outpatient behavioral health services to eligible Medicaid beneficiaries.
Under SC Medicaid rules, beneficiaries are allowed to use providers within 25 miles of the South Carolina border, including Charlotte.
From 2016 to 2021, Ashley’s company submitted fraudulent reimbursement claims to SC Medicaid and its contracted managed care organizations for rehabilitative behavioral health services that were never provided.
To carry out the scheme, Ashley used the personal identifying information of qualified SC Medicaid beneficiaries to file reimbursement claims totaling $1.3 million dollars.
To further the scheme and to give the appearance that the company’s fraudulent claims were legitimate, Ashley instructed her employees to create fake clinical service notes after she filed fraudulent claims in the names of Medicaid beneficiaries.
Trial evidence established that in September 2019, Ashley was informed of audits of the Medicaid claims.
To cover up the fraud, Ashley submitted fictitious patient medical records and made false statements to auditors. Trial evidence further established that Ashley engaged in money laundering and used some of the fraudulent proceeds to promote the scheme by paying for Medicaid beneficiary names and personal information.
In addition to the Medicaid fraud scheme, evidence showed that from April 3, 2020, to May 14, 2022, Ashley executed a scheme to obtain fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans on behalf of her company and Gucci International Inc., a purported event planning business owned by Ashley’s boyfriend.
Ashley obtained more than $287,000 in COVID-19 relief funds for her companies and Gucci International Inc.
Ashley was remanded into jail custody after the jury returned its guilty verdict on her. A federal district court judge will determine Ashley’s sentence after considering the U.S. sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing date has not been set.
