Judge orders Arizona couple to prison over Medicaid fraud

A Phoenix federal judge on June 1 gave a New River couple multi-year prison sentences for deliberately defrauding Arizona’s Medicaid program of $12 million.

Thvoughn Lynden Curry and his wife, A’lexis Daneen Curry, who were both 34 as of Feb. 1, according to the federal government, were first arrested in 2023 in connection with massive fraud that bilked Arizona’s Medicaid program out of an estimated $2.5 billion. The schemes disproportionately targeted vulnerable Native Americans trying to get sober from alcohol and drug dependence.

In some cases, patients were plied with drugs and alcohol while they stayed at so-called sober living homes to keep the scheme going. A class action lawsuit filed in 2024 alleges extreme harm and wrongful deaths from the schemes.

The couple received slightly different sentences connected with the same fraud scheme that involved their Mesa-based “1 Family Clinic, LLC” billing Medicaid for services they never provided.

During the June 1 sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow told Thvoughn that because of a prior criminal history, he will be going to prison for 7.3 years, while his wife will be imprisoned for a shorter time of 5.8 years. The couple has six children, including four that they had together, and three of the children are under age five, according to court records and testimony during the sentencing.

Snow told A’lexis Curry that he wished he could do something for her children, “but I don’t know how.” The crime she committed is just “too serious” and deserves a significant sentence of incarceration, he said.

Snow sentenced the Currys individually. He asked each if they had anything they wanted to say to the court, and both said no. Neither showed any emotion when they were sentenced.

The couple was out of custody and in street clothes during the sentencing, and Snow is allowing them to be at home with their family for 21 days before they must self-surrender and start serving their sentences.

The couple asked that they be incarcerated at a facility near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which is in the vicinity of where A’lexis Curry’s mother lives and where their children will be staying.

Prosecutors say that when A’lexis applied to enroll as an Arizona Medicaid provider, there was a warrant out for Thvoughn’s arrest on felony fraud charges. A’lexis told Medicaid that she would be the sole owner of 1 Family Clinic, but investigators say Thvoughn was an owner, too.

Prosecutors said that between approximately Feb. 1, 2021, and March 31, 2023, the Currys routinely billed Arizona’s Medicaid program for services that were not actually provided. Throughout the course of the scheme, the Currys billed an average of more than 12 hours of service per member per day despite being open just eight hours per day on weekdays, five hours on Saturdays, and closed on Sundays, the government said.

Both were convicted Feb. 20 after a four-day bench trial of one count of conspiracy to commit health-care fraud, three counts of health-care fraud, and eight counts of transactional money laundering.

Snow ordered the duo to pay restitution of $12 million to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, known as AHCCCS, which is the state’s Medicaid program. Medicaid is a government health insurance program primarily for low-income people or those who have disabilities.

The husband and wife must also forfeit several properties to the U.S. government, including the nearly 4,000 square-foot six-bedroom, four-bathroom house where they have been living with their family. The home is valued at nearly $900,000.

Other items that the couple purchased with AHCCCS money included vacations, a 2021 Range Rover, a 2022 Mercedes LT GLE 43 C4 and a 2019 Lamborghini Urus for more than $300,000, prosecutors said. Federal court records indicate the couple filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 2024.

Both the state of Arizona and the federal government have filed charges against multiple defendants in connection with the AHCCCS fraud, which was first disclosed to the public at a multi-agency press conference in 2023.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona has charged 12 defendants in cases related to the fraud, and at least seven, including the Curry couple, have already been sentenced. Thvoughn Curry received the longest sentence of any federal defendant to date, court records show.

Snow told Thvoughn that what he’d done was “quite dishonest and quite devastating.” It was also deliberate and went on for a long time, he said.

Among the federal defendants whose cases are still pending is Farrukh Jarar Ali, a 41-year-old citizen of Pakistan who was indicted in 2025 for wire fraud and money laundering in connection with an alleged $650 million scheme involving at least 41 substance abuse treatment clinics in Arizona, prosecutors say.

Another federal defendant connected with the Arizona Medicaid schemes is Rita Anagho, a former nurse practitioner who, on May 29, 2025, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health-care fraud and wire fraud. Anagho also faced state charges and, on May 6 in Maricopa County Superior Court, was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. Anagho’s nursing license was revoked last year.

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office has indicted 140 individuals and entities connected to the widespread fraud and 41 individuals and entities have been convicted, the office reported in May.

Reach health-care reporter Stephanie Innes at stephanie.innes@usatodayco.com or follow her on X: @stephanieinnes or on Bluesky: @stephanieinnes.bsky.social.