Fraud Scheme Costs Brooklyn's Brookdale Hospital $300K: DOJ

CROWN HEIGHTS, NY — Brookdale Hospital Medical Center agreed to cough up $300,000 after prosecutors say employees defrauded a federal program for low-income parents, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace announced Thursday.

The former employees — including a director — falsified records and misused funds from a federal program to support low-income pregnant and postpartum people, prosecutors claim.

In a 2019 lawsuit related to the fraud, a 20-year director at the New Lots Brookdale Family Center is accused of using federal grant money for personal uses — including buying furniture, court records show.

The director and other employees used federal funds to pay people who never performed any work, and arranged for ineligible patients to qualify for the grants, the 2019 lawsuit alleges.

The program, which is funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides qualifying parents with food, infant formula, education, healthcare and breastfeeding support.

At any given time, Brookdale had 12 ineligible people enrolled in the program, the lawsuit claims.

Tuesday's settlement reflects the hospital's willingness to work with prosecutors, Peace said.

"This settlement demonstrates our Office’s commitment to holding healthcare providers accountable when their employees engage in misconduct," Peace said in a statement.

Brookdale's owner, One Brooklyn Health, also faces a class action suit for a data breach that could have exposed hundreds of thousands of peoples' private information, The City reported.