By Michaela Bourgeois

A man was convicted in Washington state for running a fraudulent business that sent “imposter nurses” to healthcare facilities across Washington state, officials announced Monday.

The Washington Attorney General’s office said a King County jury found David Mungai Njenga guilty on 11 counts in the Medicaid fraud trial on May 28, including a felony charge for leading organized crime.

The jury also found Njenga guilty of five counts of first-degree identity theft, one count of second-degree identity theft, three counts of first-degree theft and one count of second-degree theft.

The Attorney General’s office said Njenga created a fraudulent nurse staffing company called Heritage Medical Staffing, Inc., which was based in Kent, Washington.

The company supplied nursing homes and long-term care facilities with “imposter nurses” using the identities and credentials of real nurses that Njenga stole, officials said.

The nursing homes then paid Njenga for what they thought were real licensed nurses.

Njenga also kept most of the profits for himself, and paid the imposter nurses “far below what real nurses would be paid,” the Washington Attorney General’s Office said.

According to officials, some of the imposter nurses showed a lack of basic healthcare knowledge, such as how to take someone’s blood pressure and dispensing the wrong medication.

The case was initially referred to the attorney general’s office in 2019 by the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office, after charging a woman for using a fake identity and claiming to be a licensed registered nurse.

Officials said the woman previously worked for Njenga and received stolen identity documents from him.

According to the Washington Attorney General’s Office, between May 2017 and October 2019, Njenga ran a “multifaceted criminal enterprise” by obtaining the IDs of five real licensed nurses in Washington and created fake IDs using one person’s fingerprints.

With his first company, Heritage Medical Staffing – which was later renamed to Pro Med Alliance Medical Staffing, Inc. – Njenga recruited unlicensed or unqualified people and presented them as licensed nurses to long-term care facilities across the state including in Yakima, Bothell, Redmond, Shoreline, Vashon Island and North Bend.

Authorities said Njenga will be sentenced June 16 in King County Superior Court, and faces a prison sentence ranging from 12 years to 16.5 years. Officials note he faces up to $50,000 in criminal penalties.

“This verdict is the result of our team’s commitment to cracking down on Medicaid fraud and ensuring the safety of our health system,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said. “We are gratified to get justice for the many people harmed and put at risk by these crimes.”

The attorney general’s office won default judgements of $40,500 against each of Njenga’s businesses – Heritage Medical Staffing and Pro Med Alliance Medical Staffing, Inc.

The Washington Attorney General’s office says a co-defendant in the case, Everlyn Njuki, was not included in the trial. Authorities claim Njuki left the United States and issued a warrant for her arrest.