Daniel Lee
Introduction
Daniel Lee is a 57-year-old program director from Flushing, New York, who pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicare and New York State Medicaid of approximately $127 million by billing for medically unnecessary prescription drugs and social adult day care services that were never provided . The Justice Department announced the plea on November 10, 2026, saying Lee admitted the scheme the day before . He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 2, 2027, and faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison .
Background Information
Lee was a program director at two Flushing social adult day care centers: Happy Life Inc. and Z&W Empire Enterprise, Inc., doing business as Royal Adult Day Care Center . Over approximately ten years, those centers paid illegal cash kickbacks and bribes to Medicaid recipients to induce them to enroll, then billed Medicaid for services that were never provided — including claims submitted while the recipients were hospitalized and could not possibly have received the services . During the same period, Lee and his co-conspirators paid kickbacks and bribes to Medicare beneficiaries and Medicaid recipients at a related pharmacy that submitted claims for medically unnecessary prescription drugs .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Pleaded guilty; sentencing pending. Lee admitted conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering; no sentence has been imposed yet.
When law enforcement executed a search warrant at Happy Life, they recovered over $100,000 in cash, and separately seized approximately $900,000 in fraud proceeds held in bank accounts . “For over a decade, Daniel Lee helped run a brazen kickback scheme that stole from Medicare and Medicaid through fraudulent claims for medically unnecessary prescription drugs and social adult day care services that were never provided,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division . U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. for the Eastern District of New York called it “the end of the defendant’s long running and staggering fraud against the Medicare and Medicaid programs,” adding that his office was “working diligently to uncover and prosecute social adult day care fraud schemes to protect the vital public benefits” .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The case sits inside a wider federal crackdown the release tied explicitly to the Justice Department’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, which it said has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion since 2007 . The investigation involved HHS-OIG, the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation and OSC, with the Fraud Division’s health care fraud section prosecuting alongside the Eastern District of New York .
Current Status
Lee, 57, has admitted both conspiracy counts and awaits sentencing on March 2, 2027, facing up to 30 years in prison; the cash and bank-account seizures already removed roughly $1 million in alleged proceeds from the operation .
Impact on Their Career/Life
Lee’s two decade-care roles running Flushing day care centers ended in a guilty plea that brands the centers he directed as billing vehicles for a ten-year, $127 million scheme — kickbacks to enroll patients, claims for services never rendered, and a pharmacy pipeline of unnecessary prescriptions . With sentencing ahead and a 30-year statutory ceiling, the plea converts a decade of steady program-director work into the lead count of one of the largest social adult day care fraud cases announced by the department .
Sources
- U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, “Social Adult Day Care Program Director Pleads Guilty to $127M Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Scheme,” November 10, 2026 — source