NEW YORK: A US federal court in Brooklyn has sentenced 55-year-old Pakistani-American woman Zakia Khan to 76 months in prison for her leadership role in a $64 million Medicaid fraud and illegal kickback scheme.
The court also ordered her to pay more than $56 million in restitution and forfeit $5 million in fraud proceeds.
US District Judge Natasha C. Merle handed down the sentence on September 9, 2026. According to the US Department of Justice, Zakia pleaded guilty in August 2025 conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay healthcare kickbacks.
According to court documents, Zakia owned two social adult daycare centres in Brooklyn’s Coney Island — Happy Family Social Adult Day Care Centre Inc. and Family Social Adult Day Care Centre Inc. She also owned a home healthcare fiscal intermediary, Responsible Care Staffing Inc., and Tanwee Services Inc., an entity used to receive and disguise fraud proceeds.
From approximately October 2017 through July 2024, Zakia and a network of marketers allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to Medicaid recipients to induce them to enroll at her daycare centres. The centres subsequently billed Medicaid for services that were not actually provided as represented.
Between 2017 and 2024, the two daycare centres fraudulently billed Medicaid approximately $64 million, while Medicaid paid approximately $56 million on the basis of false and fraudulent claims. Khan and her co-conspirators allegedly used multiple business entities to launder the proceeds and generate cash for kickbacks and bribes.
As part of her sentence, Zakia was ordered to forfeit $5 million in fraud proceeds, including two properties, cash and gold jewellery seized during a search of her home.
The case was investigated by the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, Homeland Security Investigations in New York and the New York Police Department. The Justice Department said other defendants in the case would face separate proceedings. Its earlier court filings identified 11 additional co-defendants who were awaiting trial, while two other co-defendants had already pleaded guilty.
