Yonkers nonprofit director sentenced for Medicaid fraud

A Poughkeepsie man who ran a fraudulent nonprofit in Yonkers was sentenced to 90 days in prison this week, according to an announcement from state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.

Darlington Odidika was the executive director of an alternative community home for the elderly and disabled, called Systems and Abilities Inc., which he used to defraud Medicaid of about $50,000 that he said was for facility renovations.

Odidika, who was arrested in February, falsified project applications to Medicaid from August 2009 to November 2011 that documented costs he inflated and services that were never provided.

The arrest and sentencing of Odidika comes more than four years after the state Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities published a 42-page report detailing Odidika”™s kickback scheme.

Odidika and the corporation will pay $21,690 in restitution, most of which has been paid back to Medicaid, and Odidika must pay a fine of $5,000.