Brooklyn Daycare Ringleader Falls—Millions Gone

Federal prosecutors say a Brooklyn daycare owner helped drain Medicaid for years, and now a judge has sent her to prison.

Story Snapshot

A federal judge sentenced Zakia Khan to 76 months for a $64 million Medicaid fraud and kickback scheme.
Khan pleaded guilty in 2025 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and to pay illegal kickbacks.
Prosecutors say the scheme ran from 2017 to 2024 and led to about $56 million in Medicaid payments.
The court ordered over $56 million in restitution and $5 million in forfeiture tied to seized assets.

What The Court Decided And Why It Matters

United States District Judge Natasha C. Merle sentenced Brooklyn adult day care owner Zakia Khan to 76 months in federal prison. Prosecutors said Khan led a $64 million Medicaid fraud and illegal kickback scheme tied to two social adult day care centers in Brooklyn. The Department of Justice detailed how false claims and bribes fueled the operation and billed Medicaid on a large scale. The sentence also includes supervised release, restitution topping $56 million, and forfeiture of $5 million in fraud proceeds.

Khan pleaded guilty in August 2025 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay health care kickbacks. The plea covered the core conduct that later drove the sentencing. The Department of Justice said the crimes centered on paying and receiving kickbacks in exchange for referrals and claims for services that were not provided or were not allowed under program rules. The court’s order reflects the loss found and the role prosecutors said Khan played.

How The Scheme Worked, According To Prosecutors

From about October 2017 through July 2024, prosecutors say marketers and staff referred Medicaid recipients to Khan’s two Brooklyn social adult day cares. In return, Khan and the marketers paid kickbacks and bribes to drive volume and billing. The government said the centers submitted about $64 million in false claims, with Medicaid paying about $56 million based on those claims. The case began as a broader federal prosecution that charged multiple defendants linked to the same network.

Investigators tied the day cares to a home health care financial intermediary that moved money and helped process claims. Charging documents and later government releases described a system built to maximize billings through referrals and inducements. Agents also seized assets during the probe. Prosecutors said they recovered two properties, cash, and gold jewelry connected to the scheme, which the court later ordered forfeited up to $5 million.

Where This Fits In The Bigger Picture

This case aligns with a wider pattern in New York around social adult day care and related home care programs. Federal actions in recent years have focused on kickbacks, induced attendance, and billing for services not provided across several cases. State and federal officials point to a fee-for-service model that can reward volume over value. That design can invite abuse when oversight is weak and when marketers are paid to steer patients into billable slots.

Brooklyn Daycare Owner Sentenced to 76 Months for $64 Million Medicaid Fraud https://t.co/Fy0AC4PexS

— DLW 🔥#MAGA (@Dlw20161950) September 13, 2026

Both conservatives and liberals see a deeper worry here. Taxpayers fund programs that should help seniors, yet fraud can flourish when oversight lags and insiders learn to game the rules. Conservatives point to waste and weak enforcement. Liberals point to middlemen skimming from care that vulnerable people need. Many Americans now agree on one core issue: when government fails to police programs well, the well-connected cash in and the public loses trust. This case shows those stakes in dollars and years.

Key Limits In The Public Record

The public documents come mainly from government releases and charging records. Those sources detail the charges, the plea, and the sentence, but they do not include claim-level billing data that produced the $64 million figure. They also do not contain the full plea allocution or all sentencing filings. The Justice Department’s materials still provide a clear backbone for what the court decided and why the sentence and restitution were imposed in this case.