Arizona woman sentenced to 14 years in $69 million Medicaid fraud case

An Arizona woman was sentenced to 14 years in prison for orchestrating a scheme that fraudulently billed Arizona’s Medicaid agency more than $69 million in less than a year, the Justice Department announced.

Rita Ntusa Anagho, 54, of San Tan Valley, owned and operated Tusa Integrated Clinic, an addiction treatment center that submitted false claims to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) from approximately May 2022 through March 2023, according to court documents. AHCCCS paid the clinic approximately $54.9 million based on the claims.

Anagho, a licensed nurse practitioner, deliberately targeted patients covered under the American Indian Health Care Program, a fee-for-service plan available to Native Americans that offered higher reimbursement rates than other AHCCCS plans, according to court documents. She and her co-conspirators paid illegal kickbacks to owners of area sober homes in exchange for patient referrals and billed for addiction treatment services that were either not provided or not provided as billed.

To conceal the scheme, Anagho and others falsified treatment notes and records. Anagho also laundered fraud proceeds and obstructed the investigation by instructing former employees to create fake medical records after Tusa received a subpoena for documents, court documents state.

In addition to the prison term, Anagho was ordered to pay almost $55 million in restitution and forfeit nearly $9.5 million in fraud proceeds seized from seven bank accounts she controlled, along with almost $7 million in real estate, according to the Justice Department.

Anagho pleaded guilty in May 2025 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and health care fraud.

“The Fraud Division is determined to hold accountable individuals who exploit the Medicaid system and Native American health care programs,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “This sentence sends a clear message — if you take advantage of vulnerable populations to steal from the American taxpayer, you will pay the price.”

U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine for the District of Arizona said Anagho’s scheme manipulated a program intended to help Native Americans and that her sentence reflected the seriousness and damaging effects of health care fraud. FBI Phoenix Field Office Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Day said the bureau would continue working with its partners to hold accountable those who exploit health care programs. Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Miranda L. Bennett of the HHS Office of Inspector General said the agency and its law enforcement partners would continue pursuing those who defraud Medicaid.

The FBI and HHS-OIG investigated the case. Since 2007, the Justice Department’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion.