Nessel charges 4 Michigan residents in separate healthcare fraud cases
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has four Michigan residents in separate healthcare fraud cases as part of the U.S. Department of Justice's National Health Care Fraud Takedown.
Wayne White, 63, of Detroit, is charged with three counts of larceny by conversion ($20,000 or more), each a 10-year felony. Prosecutors allege that between August 2024 and April 2025, while working part-time as a community outreach contractor for Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network, White improperly received more than $234,000 that was earmarked for autism services.
Claudia Payne, 47, of Mt. Pleasant, faces five counts of Medicaid fraud, filing a false claim, each a four-year felony. Prosecutors allege that Medicaid paid Payne for providing caretaking services for an elderly, disabled man in Mt. Pleasant between October 2023 and November 2024. The attorney general's office claims Payne failed to provide caretaking services and left the man "severely neglected."
Kurt Hammond, a 56-year-old pharmacist from Ann Arbor, is charged with one count of Medicaid fraud, filing a false claim. Prosecutors say Hammond, who was a pharmacist at Central Pharmacy in Lansing from 2020 to 2024, dispensed and billed a substantial number of female condoms that the pharmacy never received from a wholesaler.
John Kempainen, 43, of Oak Park, faces six counts of Medicaid fraud, filing a false claim. State prosecutors allege that Kempain billed Medicaid for care he was to provide a vulnerable adult who lived alone in a senior facility in Oak Park. Authorities claim Kempainen did not provide care for the woman for at least four months in 2026 while living out of state.
"Our Health Care Fraud Division works every single day to protect the hard-earned money of Michiganders from Medicaid fraud," Nessel said. "They do exceptional work delivering for our residents, and these four cases are no exception. We will continue to protect taxpayer dollars and this vital program."
The Department of Attorney General's Health Care Fraud Division is handling the four fraud cases.
