A court record filed on Thursday by federal prosecutors says that Charlotte activist Cedric Dean “obtained millions of dollars in fraud proceeds” through a healthcare scheme.
Federal agents raided Dean’s properties in Charlotte on Thursday, The Charlotte Observer’s news partner WSOC-TV reported. News helicopters caught agents coming and going from those homes and searching vehicles outside.
“We did do a court-authorized investigative activity today,” local FBI spokesperson Shelley Lynch said on Thursday afternoon when asked about Dean. No one has been arrested, and the investigation is ongoing, Lynch added.
Eight witnesses described a scheme in which Dean and his recruiters “found people on the street,” got their Medicaid information, then submitted claims for services that they never received, according to the forfeiture complaint. That filing — which is civil and not criminal — allows prosecutors to seize assets and investigate them. It could also signal that criminal charges are on the way.
People used to file for Medicaid services were unhoused, it said.
The record includes other allegations:
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Dean “paid people in return for their Medicaid beneficiary information” with food or temporary housing, the filing said.
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He hired some staff, it said, but not enough to provide “services commensurate with (his company’s) Medicaid claims submissions.”
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He used a doctor to “misdiagnose people” and submit more Medicaid claims, it said.
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He “billed Medicaid for approximately $1 million of purportedly rendered services per month, but… did not offer any actual services,” it said.
Dean did not return a phone call on Thursday afternoon.
In total, as of July 7, he had submitted claims for more than $14.5 million in Medicaid funds and received more than $8 million, according to the filing. He used some of that money to buy vehicles, jewelry and properties, according to the complaint.
Cedric Dean, a housing activist in Charlotte, appeared with Councilwoman Tiawana Brown on May 22 in Charlotte, when she had a press conference to discuss her federal indictment on fraud allegations.
Previous controversies for Cedric Dean
Dean’s work housing people has raised questions elsewhere.
A property for substance use treatment that he ran in Fayetteville got shut down by that city’s fire marshal because Dean did not have a required permit. In that case, too, city officials noted “questionable Medicaid billing practices.”
Earlier this year, Dean came to the defense of Charlotte City Council Member Tiawana Brown, who faces federal fraud charges in a different controversy. She is accused of lying to receive pandemic relief funds and using some of those funds for her own birthday party.
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
