Medicaid fraud investigation leads to arrest, alleged child abduction

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CNN) -- Florida officials said Friday an investigation into Medicaid fraud -- Operation Tooth Decay -- had resulted in the arrest of a Pompano Beach woman on abduction charges.

Joyce Bryant, 37, was charged with seven counts of false imprisonment of a child under 13, punishable for up to five years and a $5,000 fine for each count.

Operation Tooth Decay investigators have been looking into allegations that people were paid to recruit children as patients of dental firms. Investigators allege the firms then billed Medicaid for unnecessary or improper dental services. A total of 106 people have been arrested so far. Among them were 17 dentists; the rest were managers, owners, and the recruiters.

In announcing the arrest of Bryant, State Attorney General Bob Butterworth said she is the first person arrested for abduction of a child as part of the investigation.

Butterworth said Bryant took six children without their parent's permission to an Oakland Park, Florida, dental firm on February 1, 2000, to have their teeth cleaned.

"Bryant initially asked the children's mother for permission to transport the children but was refused," Butterworth said. "After the mother left for work, the woman gained entry to the house and directed the children to get into her van. The children were afraid and complied with Bryant's instructions. Bryant also paid one of the children $5 to forge her mother's signature on parental consent forms."

Butterworth said Bryant was paid $25 for each child she recruited for Dental Center of America in Oakland Park. He said Dental Centers, which billed Florida's Medicaid program more than $750,000 during the first five months of 2000, had its provider designation terminated "after fraudulent billing activity was discovered."