NEW WINDSOR, New York — A New Windsor couple who billed New York's Medicaid programme for medical trips that never happened — or never happened the way they were billed — have been sentenced in the largest Medicaid fraud scheme ever prosecuted by the Orange County District Attorney's Office. Rohail Raja, 45, was sentenced on Tuesday, October 27, to six to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree grand larceny, and his wife, Sharma Alam, 45, was sentenced to six months in jail and five years of probation after pleading guilty to fourth-degree conspiracy, State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli and Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced.
Source: State Comptroller & Orange County DA (via EIN Presswire), Oct. 28, 2026
Two companies, two billing schemes
The couple ran two Medicaid transportation companies: Unique Class Limo Inc., owned by Raja, and SNR Limo Inc., owned by Alam, with Raja also acting as SNR's high managerial agent. The companies were authorised Medicaid providers, meaning the state Department of Health paid them to transport Medicaid recipients to and from approved medical providers — a service meant for low-income patients who cannot otherwise get to dialysis, clinics and appointments, the officials said.
Source: State Comptroller & Orange County DA (via EIN Presswire), Oct. 28, 2026
The first scheme was ghost trips. A forensic audit by the State Comptroller's office compared the companies' claims against medical providers' own records and found the Department of Health had paid for transports on dates and at times when those records show no such visits ever occurred — the rides, and the appointments behind them, simply did not happen, the release states.
Source: State Comptroller & Orange County DA (via EIN Presswire), Oct. 28, 2026
The second scheme was a group-ride shuffle: the companies transported multiple Medicaid recipients together in a single trip, then billed the state as though each person had been carried separately, multiplying the payment for one journey. Between April 15, 2020 and September 30, 2024, the two companies together received more than $3,434,730 they were not entitled to.
Source: State Comptroller & Orange County DA (via EIN Presswire), Oct. 28, 2026
The companies themselves pleaded guilty on May 14, 2026. Unique Class Limo pleaded guilty to first-degree grand larceny and admitted stealing $2,666,634; SNR Limo pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny and admitted stealing $768,096 — the two admissions summing exactly to the $3,434,730 the couple admitted taking. The companies were ordered to pay restitution in the amounts they admitted and were fined $5,000, according to the release.
Source: State Comptroller & Orange County DA (via EIN Presswire), Oct. 28, 2026
Cash kickbacks alleged in the indictment
The case began publicly with charges in October 2025 and an indictment announced that November. In the indictment, the couple and their companies were charged over the same two schemes for an earlier-stated period, February 1, 2020 through September 30, 2024, and prosecutors alleged that a manager, Manojkumar, delivered cash payments to Medicaid recipients connected to the scheme — the classic kickback pattern in transport fraud, in which riders are paid to lend their names to claims. The couple's guilty pleas and admissions replaced those allegations with agreed facts at sentencing.
Source: State Comptroller indictment release, Nov. 2025
How the case was built
The investigation was a joint effort by the Orange County District Attorney's Office, the Office of the State Comptroller, the Orange County Sheriff's Office and the Orange County White Collar Crimes Taskforce, assisted by the state Office of the Medicaid Inspector General and the Hudson Valley Crime Analysis Center. Investigators executed a search warrant at the couple's New Windsor residence, and the prosecution was handled by Chief Assistant District Attorney Christopher P. Borek, the officials said.
Source: State Comptroller & Orange County DA (via EIN Presswire), Oct. 28, 2026
The paper trail shows how the numbers grew as the audit deepened. When Raja and Alam were arrested on October 30, 2025, the felony complaint alleged more than $2.9 million stolen between February 2020 and August 2024, and the couple was arraigned in Orange County's Centralized Arraignment Part. By the time of their pleas, the admitted total had risen past $3.4 million, and at sentencing the couple paid $400,000 toward restitution on the spot, with $3,034,730 more ordered.
Source: State Comptroller charges release, Oct. 2025
What officials said
District Attorney Hoovler framed the case as a local record: 'This is the largest Medicaid fraud scheme ever prosecuted by the Orange County District Attorney's Office, and the main offender deserved meaningful incarceration.' Comptroller DiNapoli said: 'Raja Rohail and Shama Alam conspired to scam Medicaid out of nearly $3.5 million. They have now been held accountable for their crimes, are convicted felons, and will pay full restitution of the money they stole.' (The couple's names are Rohail Raja and Sharma Alam; the comptroller's statement rendered them in that order.)
Source: State Comptroller & Orange County DA (via EIN Presswire), Oct. 28, 2026
Unique Class Limo admitted $2,666,634 and SNR Limo admitted $768,096 — together $3,434,730 taken between April 2020 and September 2024. At sentencing the couple paid $400,000 toward restitution and were ordered to pay the remaining $3,034,730. The companies were also ordered to pay restitution in their admitted amounts and fined $5,000. Anyone who suspects Medicaid waste, fraud or abuse can call the state comptroller's hotline at 1-888-672-4555.
Why it matters beyond Orange County
Medicaid non-emergency medical transport is a quiet lifeline for the patients who use it — seniors, dialysis patients and low-income families, including immigrant households across the Hudson Valley and the New York–New Jersey region, among them Punjabi families for whom these rides are often the only way to reach a specialist. Every dollar billed for a ride that never happened is a dollar taken from that programme, and ghost-billing operators undercut the honest transport providers, many of them small immigrant-run businesses, who compete for the same contracts. Cases like this one are also why auditors increasingly cross-check transport claims against clinic records — the comparison that exposed this scheme.
What happens next
Raja now begins a six-to-18-year state prison term, while Alam serves six months in jail followed by five years of probation. The restitution orders — $3,034,730 still outstanding after the $400,000 paid at sentencing — remain enforceable against the couple, and the two companies carry their own restitution orders and fine. The district attorney's office and the comptroller say the joint taskforce model used here continues to pursue Medicaid transport fraud in the region.
Source: State Comptroller & Orange County DA (via EIN Presswire), Oct. 28, 2026