Fiango Home Healthcare's co-owners sentenced to 75 and 80 years over a $13 million, nine-year scheme
Marie Neba and her husband Ebong Tilong co-owned Fiango Home Healthcare Inc. in the Houston area. From February 2006 through June 2015, the pair submitted more than $13 million in false claims to Medicare for home health services patients did not need or receive, paying kickbacks to patient recruiters out of the proceeds and falsifying medical records to support the claims. Tilong also ran a second company, Quality Therapy Services, which he used to deduct roughly $1 million in payments from Fiango for services it never provided. A federal jury convicted Neba in late 2016 on six counts, including conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, kickback conspiracy and payment of kickbacks, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and making false statements; a judge sentenced her in August 2017 to 75 years in prison. Tilong pleaded guilty to the same core charges, plus two counts of filing fraudulent tax returns in a separate case, but removed his ankle monitor and skipped his October 2017 sentencing. A judge sentenced him in absentia that December to 80 years. Cameroonian police arrested him in January 2019; in September 2021 Cameroon's president signed a decree ordering his removal, and US Marshals brought him back to Houston on December 10, 2021, in what is described as the first extradition from Cameroon to the United States.
- Year
- 2017
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $13.0 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Home health aide fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-24
The facts, as recorded
- Marie Neba and Ebong Tilong, a married couple in the Houston area, co-owned Fiango Home Healthcare Inc., which billed Medicare for home health services.
- From February 2006 through June 2015, Fiango submitted more than $13 million in false Medicare claims for home health care that patients did not need or receive.
- Neba and Tilong used proceeds from the fraudulent claims to pay kickbacks to patient recruiters and to beneficiaries for referrals, and falsified medical records to support the billing.
- Tilong separately ran a shell company, Quality Therapy Services, which he used to deduct about $1 million in payments from Fiango for services that were never provided.
- A federal jury convicted Neba in late 2016 on one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, three counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks and payment and receipt of kickbacks, one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and one count of making false health care statements.
- US District Judge Melinda Harmon sentenced Neba, then 53, of Sugar Land, Texas, to 75 years in federal prison in August 2017.
- Tilong pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, payment and receipt of kickbacks, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and separately pleaded guilty in June 2017 to two counts of filing fraudulent tax returns tied to roughly $344,452 in unpaid tax.
- Tilong removed his ankle monitor and failed to appear for his original October 13, 2017 sentencing date.
- A judge sentenced Tilong in absentia on December 8, 2017 to 80 years in federal prison.
- Cameroonian police arrested Tilong in January 2019; in September 2021 Cameroonian President Paul Biya signed a decree ordering his removal to the United States, and US Marshals escorted him from Cameroon to Houston on December 10, 2021, described as the first extradition of a fugitive from Cameroon to the United States.
- Four other co-defendants pleaded guilty: former Fiango medical director Nirmal Mazumdar and patient recruiter Daisy Carter, both awaiting sentencing as of the 2017 reporting, and patient recruiter Connie Ray Island, sentenced to 33 months in prison.
Why this case matters
This is the longest-running and most severe scheme documented on this page: nine years of billing, a married couple running the company together, and sentences, 75 and 80 years, among the heaviest hospice or home health sentences ever handed down. It shows the scheme in its most organized form, with kickbacks to recruiters, falsified records, and a second shell company layered in to extract cash that never has to pass through Fiango’s own books as an obvious loss.
A second company just to move money
Tilong’s use of Quality Therapy Services to bill Fiango about $1 million for services it never performed is a laundering step, not a billing step: it does not generate a Medicare claim on its own, it exists only to move money out of Fiango’s accounts under cover of a plausible-looking vendor payment. The same pattern, a second company with no real operations standing between the fraud’s proceeds and the person who benefits, shows up across many of the business-category schemes on this site.
Fleeing didn’t stop the sentence
Tilong’s decision to cut off his ankle monitor and skip sentencing did not avoid it: a federal judge sentenced him in absentia anyway, and the case closed with his eventual extradition from Cameroon, more than four years after he fled. The in-absentia sentence and the extradition were two separate legal processes; the sentence stood the entire time he was gone.
The caveat
Both Neba and Tilong were convicted, Neba by a federal jury and Tilong by his own guilty plea, and both have been sentenced. The facts above, including every dollar figure, the scheme dates, and the extradition timeline, come from the Justice Department’s and IRS Criminal Investigation’s own accounts of the convictions, sentences, and Tilong’s return to the United States, not from an unproven accusation.
People named in the public record
- Ebong Tilong · convicted
Sources
- Fugitive Extradited from Cameroon to the United States to Serve 80-Year Prison Sentence. IRS Criminal Investigation. Accessed 2026-10-24. Supports: Tilong's arrest in Cameroon in January 2019, the September 2021 extradition decree, his December 10, 2021 return to Houston as the first such extradition from Cameroon, the $13 million Medicare fraud total, the $344,452 tax loss, the June 2017 tax guilty plea, Tilong's role as Neba's husband and Fiango co-owner, the Quality Therapy Services shell company used to deduct about $1 million in payments for services never provided, and the February 2006 to June 2015 scheme period.
- Home Health Agency Owner Gets 75 Years for Fraud. Home Health Care News. Accessed 2026-10-24. Supports: Neba's age, residence, the six counts of conviction, the 75-year sentence, co-defendants Nirmal Mazumdar and Daisy Carter's guilty pleas and pending sentencing, and Connie Ray Island's 33-month sentence as a patient recruiter.
- Texas Home Health Agency Gets 75 Years in Prison for Fraud. Fox News. Accessed 2026-10-24. Supports: Neba's 75-year sentence, her role as Fiango's nursing director and co-owner, and the $13 million Medicare fraud scheme.