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Parvattie Raghunandan appears in Bronx Supreme Court on Tuesday. She was sentenced to five years of probation for pocketing thousands in fraudulent Medicaid payments.
Michae
l Schwartz/for New York Daily News

Parvattie Raghunandan appears in Bronx Supreme Court on Tuesday. She was sentenced to five years of probation for pocketing thousands in fraudulent Medicaid payments.

She bilked the city out of thousands — and paid big.

A Bronx woman who committed one of the borough's biggest ever case of benefits fraud got off with five years’ probation Tuesday after paying back a hefty chunk of cash.

 

Parvattie Raghunandan, a Guyanese immigrant who misrepresented her family's income for a decade — netting thousands in fraudulent Medicaid payments — received the jail-less sentence in Bronx Supreme Court after paying back over $85,000 and pleading guilty to grand larceny.

 

The fraudster had received well over $50,000 in city Medicaid benefits between 2006 and 2013, court papers state, even though her family was far above the poverty line.

 

A spokesman for the city Human Resources Administration, whose data crunchers started the probe, said that no one in the agency could recall a bigger case of Bronx benefits fraud.

 

Raghunandan's husband, Ramesh, owns two buildings in the borough and another in Pennsylvania, according to state records.

The family also runs an electrical contracting business on Morrison Ave. in Soundview and shared a joint bank account worth over $100,000, investigators found.

 

Raghunandan's lawyer, Todd Spodek, said that many new immigrants sign up to receive benefits without fully understanding the requirements.

"Unfortunately, this scenario is all too common in immigrant communities," he said. "Often families in need of assistance are not provided adequate guidance as to the disclosure requirements for Medicaid and other subsidized welfare programs."

 

City data heads had flagged Raghundandan's case as bizarre and worth investigating because she had only applied for Medicaid and not other types of benefits common for her family size and income, officials said.

But Spodek argued that HRA's data analysis "fails to take into consideration the human component and leads investigators into believing inadvertent mistakes are evidence of actual fraud."

bkochman@nydailynews.com

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Originally Posted by Tola:

People like these take their bad Guyanese ways and tarnish the system for others.

Whether she paid back some or not, her ass should be in jail.

 maybe it was a genuine mistake

FM
Originally Posted by RiffRaff:
Originally Posted by Tola:

People like these take their bad Guyanese ways and tarnish the system for others.

Whether she paid back some or not, her ass should be in jail.

 maybe it was a genuine mistake

Maybe, maybe not.

Trust is something hard to find among some Guyanese, especially in GY.

It is also surprising that the system took so long to flag this issue.  

Tola
Another Guyanese woman is charged with credit card fraud recently, while other Guyanese serving time for the same crime. Guyanese are in competition with the Nigerians scammers.
FM
Originally Posted by RiffRaff:
Originally Posted by Tola:

People like these take their bad Guyanese ways and tarnish the system for others.

Whether she paid back some or not, her ass should be in jail.

 maybe it was a genuine mis

 

HEHEHE Yeah right.

Nehru
Originally Posted by Mr.T:

The majority of Guyanese who get in the news in the US for moeny fraud are Indo Guyanese. What makes these people so greedy?

Yeah the other side on DRUGS charges, Robbery, Murder and Rape!!!!!!!!

Nehru
Originally Posted by Nehru:
Originally Posted by Mr.T:

The majority of Guyanese who get in the news in the US for moeny fraud are Indo Guyanese. What makes these people so greedy?

Yeah the other side on DRUGS charges, Robbery, Murder and Rape!!!!!!!!

Well I didn't want to mention Lall and Roger Khan as well since their activities have been discussed many times already.

Mr.T

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