Metro-east residents charged after nationwide crackdown on health care fraud

The Illinois Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is prosecuting several metro-east residents as part of a nationwide crackdown on suspected health care fraud.

Sean T. Hodges, 59, of Collinsville, and Maurleena M. Hughes, 60, of St. Louis, were each charged on June 16 in Madison County Circuit Court with five felony counts: managed health care fraud, conspiracy to commit theft, forgery and two counts of theft.

Prosecutors allege they carried out a personal assistant fraud scheme to defraud the Illinois Medicaid Managed Care Program, charging documents show. Their alleged actions resulted in a $30,000 loss to Medicaid, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division.

Nicole D. Snyder, 44, of Breese, was indicted by a St. Clair County grand jury on four felony counts: two counts of financial exploitation of an elderly person or a person with a disability and two counts of theft.

The indictment alleges Snyder used the debit card of an elderly man with a disability without authorization from about January through late May 2025. The document does not specify Snyder and the elderly man’s relationship or Snyder’s employer. It says she gained access to the man’s debit card “through her role as an administrator” and was “in a position of trust or confidence.”

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division said this resulted in a $31,249.27 loss to Medicaid. According to the charging documents, Snyder stole between $10,000 and $100,000 from the man.

Jesse L. Kempfer, 45, of Centralia, was charged June 16 in Washington County with managed health care fraud, two counts of theft and one count of forgery. All counts are felonies.

According to the charging documents, Kempfer defrauded an Illinois Medicaid Managed Care Program by submitting false documents for gas mileage reimbursement from about late August 2023 through mid-April 2025.

More on alleged Madison County scheme

Hodges and Hughes’ charging documents allege they ran a scheme from about May 2024 through late July 2025.

The Illinois Medicaid Managed Care Program Hodges and Hughes are accused of defrauding relates to personal assistant services, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division said.

Hughes was an employee of the Illinois Department of Human Services and became Hodges’ personal assistant, court documents say. The pair’s plan included submitting false claims, time records and other documents for services that were not provided, resulting in payments to Hughes, according to charging documents.

Hughes would then pay Hodges using the earnings she gained from the false time records, her charges allege.

As of Thursday morning, Kempfer, Hodges and Hughes do not appear to have attorneys listed in their court records. Snyder’s attorney, Thomas Florek, could not immediately be reached for comment.