Attorney General Kris Mayes announced the first person has been sentenced to prison for participating in a widespread scheme to defraud Arizona’s Medicaid program.
In 2023, Mayes and other officials said they identified a fraud scheme that saw scammers set up fraudulent sober living homes in order to bill Arizona’s AHCCCS program for services they did not provide. Officials said the scheme largely targeted Native American victims, who were promised services they did not receive.
Mayes announced that Ariell Dix pled guilty to two felony charges related to her role in a scheme to defraud the state’s Medicaid program between January 2019 and September 2021, alleging tens of millions of dollars were lost during that time.
“This conviction and sentencing are a major step in our fight against sober living home fraud,” Mayes said in a statement. “Make no mistake, criminals who defraud Arizona taxpayers and prey on vulnerable communities will be investigated and aggressively prosecuted by my office.”
Dix was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
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