Attorney General Jeff Jackson Announces Money Laundering and Health Care Fraud Sentencing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 14, 2025

Contact: Ben Conroy
(984) 383-9038

RALEIGH – Attorney General Jeff Jackson today announced that Wendell Lewis Randall was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to repay more than $2 million after pleading guilty to one count of health care fraud and one count of money laundering.

“This health care provider stole taxpayer dollars for his own profit while he worsened our state’s opioid crisis,” said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. “Doctors have a legal and ethical responsibility to provide the quality health care that patients need. When they don’t, our office and our federal and state partners will hold them accountable.”

Randall owned and was the sole doctor of the National Institute of Toxicology, PLLC (NIT) in Mt. Airy. Between 2018 and 2021, he prescribed opioids and other controlled substances to patients even if these medications were not necessary for the patients’ treatments. He also required his patients to submit definitive urine drug tests on every office visit even when these tests were not medically necessary.

Because his practice had an in-house laboratory, Randall billed Medicare and the North Carolina Medicaid program for these urine drug tests and got $753,446.70 from Medicare and $1,296,300.77 from Medicaid in reimbursements. Randall then used those reimbursements to make significant purchases, including buying a building on a property near his home for $97,000.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Charlotte Tactical Diversion Squad, Greensboro Diversion Group; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General; the Internal Revenue Service; the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office, Medicaid Investigations Division; and the North Carolina Department of Insurance investigated this case. Assistant United States Attorney Rebecca Mayer and Special Assistant United States Attorney Dan Spillman prosecuted the case.

About the Medicaid Investigations Division (MID) 

The Attorney General’s MID investigates and prosecutes health care providers that defraud the Medicaid program, patient abuse of Medicaid recipients, patient abuse of any patient in facilities that receive Medicaid funding, and misappropriation of any patients’ private funds in nursing homes that receive Medicaid funding.

To date, the MID has recovered more than $1 billion in restitution and penalties for North Carolina. To report Medicaid fraud or patient abuse in North Carolina, call the MID at 919-881-2320. The MID receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $8,453,116 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2025. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $2,817,703 for FY 2025, is funded by the State of North Carolina.

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