Two Plead Guilty for Multi-Year Minnesota Medicaid Fraud Scheme

St. Paul, MN (MinnesotaNow)- Two people charged in a Minnesota Medicaid fraud scheme are pleading guilty. 

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That’s according to a news release issued on Wednesday by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. They were among three people indicted in the federal case last December. 

All three are described in federal court documents as leaders of a company called Evergreen Recovery. 

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Leaders of Minnesota Company Plead Guilty to Wire Fraud in Multi-Year Medicaid Fraud Scheme

Shantel Magadanz and Heather Heim have each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. 

Magadanz, Heim and a third individual, identified as Shawn Grygo, are accused of running a multi-year scheme to defraud Medicaid by overbilling the state’s Department of Human Services and UCare for drug addiction treatments they never provided. 

The overbilling scheme included adding names of clients to consular logs even though the counselors never saw the clients. Magadanz, Heim and Gyro were also accused of falsifying other backdated records, court documents indicate. 

The news release also says the three directed clients to a sober house one of the Evergreen owners controlled called Second Chances Sober Living. 

In order to stay in the home, clients were required to attend programming put on by Evergreen. The programs were never conducted, but Evergreen still billed Medicaid for the programming, the news release says. 

Federal court documents allege the three conducted the scheme from 2022 through July of last year. A specific amount of money stolen has not been disclosed, however the news release says the fraud cost Minnesota taxpayers millions. 

A sentencing date has not yet been set for Heim and Magadanz. The federal case against Gyro is ongoing.