Nigerian-born CEO Arrested in US for ‘Defrauding Veterans of $7m’

Cashmir Chinedu Luke, a Nigerian-born chief executive of a California home healthcare company, has been arrested in the United States for allegedly orchestrating a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme targeting military veterans.

According to a statement from the US attorney’s office, the CEO was arrested at San Francisco International Airport while attempting to board a flight to Nigeria.

The statement said he is charged following a criminal complaint alleging that he fraudulently obtained more than $7 million in payments from the department of veterans affairs (VA) for services that were never actually rendered, including care purportedly rendered to veterans weeks after they had died.

“According to court documents, between December 2019 and July 2024, Cashmir Chinedu Luke, believed to be 66, of Antioch, operated Four Corners Health LLC,” the statement reads.

“That entity provided unskilled in-home nursing and day-to-day care for elderly VA beneficiaries under the Veterans Community Care Program. Four Corners provided services in Fresno, Tulare, Merced, Mariposa, Madera, San Francisco, and Contra Costa Counties.”

The attorney’s office said Luke engaged in a five-year scheme to bill the VA for hours of care that were not actually rendered to veterans.

“Luke caused Four Corners to submit approximately 10,000 individual false claims of care provided that caused the VA, through its third-party benefits administrator, to reimburse Four Corners $7 million for duplicate claims for care actually provided, claims for days caretakers were not present with veterans, claims for hours of care beyond those actually worked by caretakers, and claims of care for veterans who were actually dead,” the statement added.

“Luke served as the sole owner and billing representative for Four Corners and actively deceived the VA’s third-party benefits administrator as it attempted to recover some of the fraudulently paid reimbursements.

“This allowed the Four Corners billing scheme to continue. Luke personally profited from the scheme as the sole owner of the bank account that received the reimbursement payments.

“Luke spent reimbursement payments immediately after being paid by the VA, either by spending lavishly on personal expenses or by promptly transferring the funds across a network of bank accounts throughout Asia and Africa.”

Any sentence, however, would be at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the federal sentencing guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.