New York State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott, New York State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the sentencing to prison of a Manhattan man who used more than a dozen family members and friends in yearslong schemes stealing more than $600,000 in welfare and unemployment insurance benefits to which he was not entitled.
Ballal Hossain, 46, of Third Avenue, New York City, was sentenced in New York County Supreme Court to 2 1/3 to 7 years in state prison for his guilty plea to two counts of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree and one count of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, all felonies. In addition to the sentence, $603,000 in cash was seized from Hossain’s home and will be used as full restitution for the stolen funds.
An investigation conducted by the Office of the Welfare Inspector General and the Department of Labor found that from early 2011 through early 2017, Hossain arranged for more than a dozen friends and family members (including himself and his wife), to work as salaried Home Attendants through the Medicaid-funded Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP), purportedly caring for his mother and three other patients. None of these friends or family members provided the home attendant services for which they were paid by Medicaid. In addition, Hossain was able to fraudulently inflate the Home Attendant’s amount of Unemployment Insurance (UI) Benefits that they would receive when they were “discharged” from service. The scheme enabled the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars in Welfare and UI benefits.
“This defendant used a network of family and friends to enrich himself through an elaborate and brazen criminal manipulation of safety net programs meant to help New Yorkers who are truly in financial distress,” said Inspector General Leahy Scott. “I thank the Department of Labor’s investigative team and my law enforcement partners in this case, and I remain committed to ensuring the protection of welfare funds from abuse while pursuing anyone who takes criminal advantage of such critical programs.”
“Under Governor Cuomo, New York State has a zero-tolerance policy for the theft of important safety net benefits,” said Commissioner Reardon. “The amount stolen and the defendant’s actions to perpetrate fraud in this case are egregious. I commend Inspector General Scott and her team for their tireless efforts and District Attorney Vance and his team for their cooperation and effort in this case. I also applaud the dedicated Department of Labor staff that detected this fraud. Let this case serve as a warning to those who would seek to defraud the UI system: you will be brought to justice.”
“For half a decade, Ballal Hossain orchestrated a complex fraud to line his pockets with money intended to support New Yorkers in need,” said District Attorney Vance. “The sentence imposed by the court, and the sizeable restitution repaid to New York City and State, reflect the criminal and civil consequences of abusing a public program which serves as a lifeline for those who have lost their employment by no fault of their own.”
