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Brooklyn Center, MN (KROC-AM News) - Eight people have been charged with being involved in a Medicaid fraud scheme involving the theft of over $860,000.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says his office has filed a total of 46 counts of felony theft against the defendants. Ellison says Trenea Davis of Brooklyn Center has admitted to being the ringleader of the scheme and faces 11 charges.

She is accused of recruiting family members and friends to fake or exaggerate medical conditions to qualify them for the services of personal care assistants or PCAs. The alleged scheme also involved the recruitment of people to report providing services that never occurred. The criminal charges state Davis was paid for working as a PCA for more than 7,000 hours from December 2014 and then switched to being a patient requiring 12 hours of daily assistance.

The others charged in the case include her husband, her brother-in-law, a niece, and the niece's former boyfriend. A news release says two of the defendants were allegedly collecting Minnesota Medicaid benefits or pay for providing PCA services while they were living in Louisiana.

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