WASHINGTON: An Indian national was on Tuesday sentenced to nine years of imprisonment for a USD2.8 million health care fraud, the Department of Justice said.

Yogesh K Pancholi, 43, a resident of Michigan, owned and operated Shring Home Care Inc. (Shring), a home health company.

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, according to court documents.

In a two-month period, Pancholi and his co-conspirators billed and were paid nearly USD2.8 million by Medicare for services that were never provided, federal prosecutors said.

Pancholi then transferred these funds through bank accounts belonging to shell corporations and eventually into his accounts in India, prosecutors alleged.

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, the Department of Justice said.