A federal jury convicted three defendants in an $11 million Medicaid fraud and kickback scheme involving a Henrico, Va.-based mental health agency, according to a Sept. 9 Justice Department news release.
Twin sisters E’mon and Armone’ Ambers, 31, and Traquan Brown, 32, participated in the scheme through Divine Youth Counseling, according to the release. E’mon Ambers served as the agency’s CEO and Armone’ Ambers as its program director; Mr. Brown worked for the agency and purported to provide counseling services.
Between January 2022 and October 2025, Divine Youth submitted more than $11 million in fraudulent Medicaid claims for Crisis Stabilization and Mobile Crisis mental health services, falsely claiming two mental health professionals simultaneously provided “Team Treatment” when at most one professional was present, according to the release. The defendants also paid more than $470,000 in kickbacks by purchasing hotel rooms for Medicaid recipients to incentivize them to use Divine Youth’s services, the release said.
E’mon and Armone’ Ambers were convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and healthcare fraud, healthcare fraud, aggravated identity theft, payment of kickbacks, and transactional money laundering. E’mon Ambers faces a mandatory minimum of two years and up to 92 years in prison; Armone’ Ambers faces a mandatory minimum of two years and up to 42 years. Mr. Brown was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and healthcare fraud and faces up to 10 years in prison.
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