AG Ellison’s office obtains guilty plea in $860K Medicaid fraud case

Ringleader Trenea Davis pleads guilty to 5 charges in case AG filed in January 2021

January 18, 2022 (SAINT PAUL) – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that his office obtained pleas of guilty from the ringleader of an enterprise that defrauded Minnesota’s Medical Assistance (Medicaid) program out of over $860,000. 

In January 2021, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) in Attorney General Ellison’s office charged Trenea Deshawn Davis and 7 others, most of whom are Davis’s family members, for running a 5-year-long scheme to swindle the Medicaid program.  Davis recruited friends and family members to feign or exaggerate medical conditions to qualify them for personal care assistant (PCA) services. Davis then enlisted others to report providing services that never occurred and coordinated check splitting arrangements among PCAs, recipients, and herself. 

Davis herself reported working as a PCA for more than 7,000 hours from December 2014 to May 2018, then switched to the role of patient, reporting the need for care up to 12 hours of care a day.  

“Minnesotans who receive Medical Assistance have a right to expect that they’ll receive all the care, dignity, and respect they’re entitled to. Minnesotans trying to afford their lives have a right to expect that every one of their tax dollars will be put to use properly,” said Attorney General Ellison.  “People who commit Medicaid fraud violate both of those rights. I’m proud of my office for aggressively prosecuting this case and securing this guilty plea. Anyone who defrauds Minnesotans needs to know we will hold them accountable, too.” 

As part of her plea, Davis acknowledged operating the fraud ring.  Davis admitted that no one involved with her scheme received or provided any legitimate services, and that she assisted her husband, children, siblings, cousins, and friends in reporting services that did not occur.  Davis admitted that she and her co-conspirators then split the fraudulently obtained wages, with the majority of the money going to Davis.  Davis acknowledged that she reported services that she did not provide, and further admitted to lying about her own medical conditions in order to qualify for services that she did not need.  She also admitted to concealing her marriage in order to circumvent Medicaid rules that prohibited her from getting paid for providing services to her husband.

Davis entered a plea of guilty to five counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle (over $35,000).  She will be sentenced on February 15, 2022 by the Honorable Regina Chu. Of Davis’s 7 co-conspirators, 6 have pled guilty.   

This case was investigated and prosecuted by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) in the Office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.  The Minnesota MFCU receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $3,543,180 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2022.  The remaining 25 percent, totaling $1,181,059 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2022, is funded by the State of Minnesota.