A Phoenix pastor and his church are among 22 individuals and businesses charged with allegedly defrauding Arizona’s Medicaid program of $60 million, according to an indictment unsealed by the office of the Arizona attorney general on Tuesday.
Pastor Theodore Mucuranyana and his congregation, Hope of Life International Church in Glendale, Arizona, were indicted last month on ten felony counts of money laundering.
Other defendants face additional counts, including theft, conspiracy, fraudulent schemes and artifices, patient referral fraud, and forgery, according to the attorney general’s office. Kristin Mayes is the state’s attorney general.
Mucuranyana and his church have been accused of conspiring with the other defendants to siphon millions of dollars in state funding intended for mental health treatment and addiction recovery via bogus rehab claims. The claims were either for services that were never performed or for patients who had died, been incarcerated, or were ill.
Mucuranyana and Hope of Life are also accused of laundering the profits through the church and a behavioral health firm.
Between August 2022 and January 2024, the business, Happy House Behavioral Health LLC, and its proprietors, Desire Rusingizwa and Fabrice Mvuyekure, allegedly served as the scam’s ringleaders.
The indictment accused Mucuranyana and his church of colluding with Happy House to get payment for supplying bogus “sober living” accommodations.
The indictment alleges that Happy House laundered two checks, one for $5 million and the other for $500,000, through Hope of Life International Church in the summer of 2023.
In December 2023, the church transferred $2 million to an unknown “entity” in Rwanda.
Happy House also leased a building on the Hope of Life Church grounds.
Mucuranyana and Hope of Life, together with Rusingizwa and Mvuyekure, pleaded not guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court on Tuesday, according to court records. A pre-trial conference will take place in July.
Pastor contends state is deflecting blame
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Joshua Kolsrud, Pastor Mucuranyana’s attorney, called the indictment of his client and Hope of Life “unjust.” In a statement, he described the pastor as “a respected community leader with no criminal history.”
Instead, he claims that the attorney general’s office is aiming to “escape accountability for failing to detect an alleged fraud that triggered over $60 million in payouts within a year.”
He went on: “Instead of addressing this regulatory failure, the prosecution pursues baseless charges against uninvolved parties to deflect blame.”
Kolsrud contended that the charges are based on politics rather than evidence, although he did not specify whose politics.
“Targeting a church and its leadership without proof sets a dangerous precedent and erodes public trust in the justice system,” he added.
Kolsrud told 12 News that Mucuranyana was only wanting to rent his property and had “nothing to do with this case.”
According to its website, Hope of Life International Church is an Assemblies of God church that serves East African migrants in the Phoenix region. “Through the Word of God, we help them find the light in Christ and be transformed as genuine Christians,” according to the church’s website.
According to a YouTube video, Mucuranyana last preached for the church around a month ago.
Latest in a string of Medicaid fraud
The attorney general’s office noted that this incident is one of the largest fraud cases to date in a string of cases of scams against sober-living homes in Arizona. These homes are intended to provide housing and help to people battling with addiction.
The Associated Press noted that the incidents have typically targeted Native Americans enrolled in the American Indian Health Plan. The health plan was originally designed to help tribe members who lived in distant places and needed access to rehabilitative services.
According to AZ Central, there was little oversight for the scheme. Scammers took advantage of this and inundated the system with fake claims for hundreds of hours of rehabilitation treatments that were never given. Scammers would occasionally force patients to take medicines in order to remain in a rehabilitation home.
According to AZ Central, Mayes described the massive fraud as a “stunning government failure” in 2023. As of last month, over 100 people and businesses had been charged with similar fraud.
According to 12 News, the attorney general’s office has recovered $150 million in cash and assets from the claimed $2 billion scammed by these schemes.
