Long Beach Woman Among 9 Charged in Welfare Fraud Sweep

A Long Beach woman was one of nine people charged with stealing more than $282,000 in bogus Medicaid benefits.

Noemi Perdomo, 48, was arrested and charged with second-degree grand larceny, second-degree welfare fraud and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing on Dec. 6, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced Friday.

Rice said that between January 2004 and October 2010, Perdomo stole more than $98,000 in undeserved Medicaid benefits by claiming a weekly family income of $800 to $1,000. Perdomo failed to disclose the income from her husband’s landscaping business, her husband’s purchase of two houses in Florida, and annual deposits into personal accounts of between $84,000 and $221,000.

Perdomo is due back in court Feb.6. If convicted, she faces up to 15 years in prison.

The other people arrested in the sweep were Byung Jun, 42, and Myung Hee Jun, 43, of Plainview; Shahrzad Mahgerefteh, 41, and Josef Mahgerefteh, 47, of Great Neck; Jie Lin, 34, and Feng Lin, 41, of Seaford; Heng Ping Lin, 44, and Hui Lan Chen Lin, 46, of Farmingdale.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said the sweep was the result of joint investigations by the D.A’s Public Assistance Fraud Unit and the Nassau County Department of Social Services Special Investigations Unit.

Since 2007, the District Attorney’s Office has uncovered more than $3.4 million in stolen benefits and returned more than $2.1 million to the taxpayer, Rice said.

“Medicaid is designed to provide much-needed healthcare to our society’s most vulnerable members, not to criminals who think nothing of placing their financial burdens on the backs of the taxpayer,” said Rice in a statement, adding her office "will continue to find and arrest the scam artists who plague these essential programs."