Medicaid Cut: Parents, Senate Mark Kelly, Reubenga Lego Share Worried
Mark Kelly and Reuben Gallego will speak at City Hall about Medicaid cuts at the Noah Chola Health Center in Scottsdale on March 17, 2025.
Phoenix – The Arizona Attorney General’s Office has announced the indictment of 20 people, including a church pastor.
The indictment is the latest in a series of cases alleging ramp-delayed fraud against Arizona’s healthcare cost containment system, most of which did not provide alcohol and drug rehabilitation services. Arizona Attorney General Chris Mays held a press conference in May 2023, months after taking office, and announced a widespread fraud called “a stunning government failure.”
The cost to taxpayers is $2.5 billion.
Since then, more than 100 individuals and businesses have faced charges in 14 cases, the office told the Republic of Arizona, part of the USA Today Network, in April. The scheme involves patients who are primarily registered in the American Indian Health Plan and is designed to serve Native Americans who may live in areas far from doctors and clinics. It was purposefully created with little surveillance and scrutiny that could delay care.
Authorities said fraudsters have exploited these loopholes and are flooded with the system with fraudulent claims against hundreds of hours of rehabilitation services that were not provided. Authorities said patients sometimes live in nursing homes to keep alcohol and drugs in care home.
This latest case has named 17 people and two entities. One of them is the church. The large ju trial indicted three other people, but their identities were not announced in the indictment.
Most of the people appointed in the indictment were arrested on May 20th. Additional arrests were scheduled for May 21st and May 27th.
Indictment: The fraudulent claims filed were for those who died and were incarcerated.
The indictment appointed two men as masterminds of the comprehensive plot: Lusing Iswa of Desire and Fabrice Mvieculée, and the two together with a business called Happy House Bee Review Health. The scheme began in August 2022 and continued until January 2024, the indictment said.
As part of that scheme, Rusingizwa and Mvuyekure filed fraudulent claims of more than $60 million with AHCCCS through Happy House from August 2022 to July 2023, according to the charges. AHCCCS suspended operations in July 2023, agency records show.
According to the charges, some of the fraudulent allegations filed by Happy House were for people in death, incarcerated or hospitals.
Rusingizwa’s lawyer, Shaheen P. Torgoley, said in an email that Happy House provided legitimate rehabilitation services. “Mr. Rusingizwa is a man of a respectable family with no criminal history,” his lawyer wrote. “He looks forward to opposing these allegations before the court.
The indictment also listed Theodore Mukrana, pastor of hope for the International Church of Life. Court records show that Happy House started on land rented out from the church. The indictment, along with the church, accused Muturanyana of money laundering.
According to the indictment, Happy House Behavioral Health moved more than $5 million to the church after receiving a letter from an Arizona official saying it was under investigation for fraud.
Mucuranyana did not reply to a phone message seeking comment.
His attorney, Joshua Colsrude, emailed a statement accusing the Attorney General’s office of failing to detect a $60 million payment within a year. “Instead of addressing this failure in regulations, the prosecutor will distract liability by pursuing unfounded accusations against non-acrificed parties,” the statement said.
Kolsrud said Macuranyana is “a respected community leader with no criminal history.”
Church lawyer Julia Colslude said the church was not merely working as a landlord, but had no insight into how the tenants work inside.
The Republic left a phone message and sent an email to the lawyers listed for the defendant in the case. They didn’t respond immediately.
The money fraudulently acquired from the AHCCCS was used to pay to accommodate patients to operators of so-called “soft living houses,” the indictment said. Other individuals named in the indictment were accused of conspiring with Happy House to get paid to provide the housing.
By law, plain living homes were not designed to be paid out of AHCCCS funds. Those living there were to work on their salary and pay for the housing.
$5 million check. High-quality jewelry. Handbag.
The indictment listed 11 companies that prosecutors said they had participated in the assault plan, along with certain transactions that authorities constituted money laundering.
One was a check in July 2023, $2.8 million issued to Mvueykure, the indictment said.
Another woman listed in the business records as one of Happy House principals, received the same amount of check on the same day, the accusation said. The person was not listed on the charges.
Happy House wrote two checks for the Hope of Life Church in the summer of 2023. One wrote $500,000 in June and $5 million in July. In August 2023, more than $900,000 was transferred from the church to pay the property. According to documents submitted to the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, the Hope of Life Church was listed as a buyer.
Online real estate sites show addresses listed in the prosecution as matching the five-acre vacant parcel, which the listed agent describes as “the best place to build a dream home.”
According to the accusations, in December 2023, Life of Life International Church wired $2 million to an unnamed organization in Rwandan.
Submissions in related cases attempting to seize the property said investigators searched the homes of Mvuyekure and Rusingizwa in Peoria in June 2024. Court records show that court records are gorgeous jewelry, watches and handbags.
According to the indictment, the large ju trial indicted individuals and businesses on April 21st.
