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By LANCE MARTIN

rrspin.com

A man charged in a multimillion dollar Medicaid fraud scheme with roots in Roanoke Rapids and Ahoskie made his first court appearance in North Carolina last week.

United States District Judge Richard E. Myers II ordered Timothy Mark Harron detained until the court can review a pretrial release order issued by a federal magistrate judge in the district of Nevada.

A hearing has been set before Myers on Aug. 26 in Wilmington so the court can review an appeal filed by the government challenging the pretrial release approved in Nevada.

A motion filed by United States Attorney Robert J. Higdon Jr. in May contends Harron would present a danger if allowed pretrial release.

Harron and his wife Latisha were named in a 75-count indictment charging them with 54 counts of wire fraud, each of which carry a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison; six counts of aggravated identity theft, each of which carry a maximum punishment of not less than, nor more than, 2 years in prison consecutive to other sentences; conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison; and 11 counts of conducting transactions in criminally derived property with fraud and money laundering, which carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison.

Mrs. Harron is also charged with making false statements relating to healthcare matters, which carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison

The Harrons operated Agape Healthcare Systems in Roanoke Rapids and Assured Healthcare Services in Ahoskie.

Their forfeiture notice also included a .35 acre tract of land with all improvements in the 200 block of North Main Street in Rich Square; one tract of real property in the name of Assured Healthcare Systems in the 100 block of East First Street in Ahoskie; and a .27 acres acre tract of real property with all improvements in the name Mr. and Mrs. Harron in the 1700 block of Doolittle Mill Road near Conway.

Higdon said in a statement released in May the case represented “one of the most brazen and egregious cases of home health Medicaid fraud ever seen in this district.”

The indictment alleges a $13 million fraud that funded what Higdon called a gluttonous, social media-marketed lifestyle – one filled with private jets, penthouses and luxury resorts.

He said at the time, “Most reprehensible is the fact that this crime is alleged to have been carried out on the backs of our most vulnerable: the poor, the deceased, the elderly, and the disabled.”

The Harrons had taken up residency in Las Vegas after marrying in 2018, but continued running the alleged scheme across the globe, Higdon’s motion on Mr. Harron’s detention noting the fraud had been ongoing since at least 2013, and was committed from around the world, including Nevada, North Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut, French Polynesia, Tahiti, the Dominican Republic, and other locations.

Mrs. Harron is scheduled for arraignment during the Nov. 17 term of court in Wilmington at 10 a.m. before Meyers.

(Lance Martin is the Editor and Publisher of www.rrspin.com. Permission was received to publish this story.)