Taunton man sentenced for bilking insurance companies out of more than $1 million

TAUNTON — A Taunton man has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for orchestrating a scheme to defraud health insurance companies of over $1 million in bogus reimbursement claims for medical expenses purported to have incurred during international travel.

Henry Ezeonyido, 37, formerly of Brockton, was also sentenced Wednesday by Boston U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin to three months of supervision once he is released, to pay $655,313 in restitution and to forfeit $396,998 in criminal proceeds, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts said.

In February, Ezeonyido pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and six counts of health care fraud.

He was arrested and charged in July 2024 along with co-conspirators Brendon Ashe, Aqiyla Atherton, Darline Cobbler and Ariel Lambert. Ezeonyido was indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2024. All four of Ezeonyido's co-defendants pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme and were sentenced to probation.

From roughly October 2019 to February 2022, Ezeonyido submitted fraudulent health insurance claims on his behalf and on behalf of at least seven other individuals, including Ashe, Atherton, Cobbler and Lambert, to five health insurance companies for expensive medical treatment they purportedly received and paid for out-of-pocket while traveling overseas, prosecutors said.

Many of the claims included fake traumatic injuries from stabbings, gunshot wounds and hit-and-run car accidents that the defendants and others purportedly suffered that required hospitalization abroad. In nearly all instances, the individuals were actually in the United States at the time.

Some of the individuals on whose behalf Ezeonyido submitted claims were knowing and willful participants in the scheme, while others either had no knowledge of the claims submitted on their behalf or were manipulated into providing their health insurance information. Ezeonyido then used the information to submit fraudulent claims, later demanding a cut of the proceeds, authorities said.

Ezeonyido submitted phony documents to victims' health insurance companies, including medical records indicating medical care received, bank records to show payment to international treatment facilities and, police reports describing the circumstances of the alleged events, they added.

In many instances, the details of the claims, including dates, country, and injuries were nearly identical to one another, authorities said.

The health insurance companies were billed over $1 million for services that were never provided, resulting in payments totaling about $655,313. Upon receiving these payments from their health insurance companies, Ashe, Cobbler, Lambert and others paid a portion of the proceeds to Ezeonyido and other co-conspirators, including Atherton, who acted as an intermediary, bringing others into the scheme in exchange for a cut of their paid claims, prosecutors said, adding Ezeonyido retained nearly $400,000 in fraud proceeds.