Allwell T. Inimgba, 51, was sentenced on one count of health care fraud after he pled guilty in October, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Minnesota.

In his plea deal, Inimgba admitted that from January of 2006 to March of 2009 he carried out a scheme to defraud Medicaid by overbilling it for services supposedly provided by registered nurses working for Victory Home Care, a home health agency, where Inimgba was the responsible billing party.

Inimgba billed Medicaid for more than 20,000 hours of services supposedly provided to various Medicaid recipients. Medicaid paid Victory more than $1,400,000 for those claims, however, the nurses provided far less care than what Inimgba noted. About $513,734 was awarded to Victory for work not done by the nurses.

The case was a result of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General, the FBI, the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota attorney general office's medicaid fraud control unit.

According to the Justice Department, health care fraud investigations have been on the rise.

NICOLE NORFLEET