A Nigerian traditional ruler, Professor Ekelekamchukwu Alphonsus Ngwadom, has been convicted and sentenced in the United States for committing Medicaid fraud after billing dozens of minors for therapy they never received.
Ekelekamchukwu, 61, is a Psychotherapist and Professor of Psychology and Sociology at University of Mount Olive, North Carolina, USA.
He was crowned the king of Mbubu, Amiri Kingdom in Oru East Local Government Area of Imo State in 2021 after the passing of his father.
US Attorney General Jeff Jackson, announced on January 13, 2025 that Ngwadom pled guilty to 27 counts of obtaining property by false pretenses.
Ngwadom was sentenced to 12-34 months, suspended for 36 months of supervised probation, which carried a 90-day house arrest and a payment of $72,014.66 in restitution.
“When people defraud the Medicaid program, they are stealing money from North Carolina taxpayers and from those who rely on this care. My office will not allow it, and we’re going to work with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to prevent fraud,” Jackson said.
Between February 18, 2020 and March 18, 2021, Ngwadom submitted $72,014.66 in fraudulent claims to Alliance Health, a North Carolina health insurance company that services state-funded plans and Medicaid, for providing behavioral health services to 27 Medicaid patients, including children, that were never provided.
Alliance Health paid Ngwadom the money, however, the integrity section of Alliance Health flagged the payment and the attorney general’s Medicaid Integrity Division (MID) began investigating.
Ngwadom was charged on January 30, 2025, three years after a probe by the N.C. Department of Justice and the State Bureau of Investigation, court documents show.
The investigation began after Alliance Health, which manages public behavioral health care for multiple Triangle-area counties, reported in 2020 that one of Almarch Counseling’s clients appeared to have overlapping services from two different providers, according to a search warrant.
The parents of the minor client told investigators they’d never received services from Ngwadom or Almarch, but records showed Ngwadom had submitted 52 claims for that family’s two children between January and October 2020.
Tracy Grimes, a prosecutor for the N.C. Attorney General’s Office, said in court that Ngwadom billed the minors for services he’d purportedly provided as part of an after-school program, but that program was not running because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He’d actually met the clients while participating in the program from 2016 to 2019, she said.
Families who spoke to investigators also reported Ngwadom would come to their house to offer services, but they would decline, Grimes said.
The fraudulent billing prevented some of the children from receiving mental health services from the providers they were actually seeing, she added.
Ngwadom’s defense attorney, Lauren Toole, told Judge Winston Gilchrist her client made a mistake after the pandemic impacted his business.
The lost income led to his home being foreclosed on, Toole said.
“He can’t take back what he did,” she said. “All he can do is try to make it right and take accountability.”
Ngwadom has taken out a second mortgage on his home to help him pay the $72,014.66 in restitution he owes to Alliance Health, according to Toole.
He has also found another job, as the terms of his plea agreement forced him to surrender his professional licenses.
Ngwadom became a licensed clinical mental health counselor in North Carolina in March 2015, state records show. A LinkedIn page appearing to belong to Ngwadom said he opened Almarch in September 2015.
When asked by Gilchrist in court if he was guilty, Ngwadom shook his head several times, then paused before whispering, “Yes, sir.” But he later apologised to the court before he was sentenced.
“This is not typically who I am,” Ngwadom said, starting to cry.
As Ngwadom scrubbed at his eyes with his shirt sleeve, Gilchrist denied Grimes’ request for time in prison and gave Ngwadom a suspended sentence.
If he violates the terms of his three-year probation, he’ll have to serve a minimum of a year and a maximum of three years in prison, according to the sentencing sheet.
Ngwadom must pay $45,000 of the restitution by January 21, 2026, Gilchrist said. He must also complete 100 hours of community service and will be on house arrest for the first three months of his probation. If he complies with all the terms of his probation, he can be transferred to unsupervised probation after two years.
The professor was coronated on April 16, 2021 immediately after the burial of his father, late HRH SIR, EZE Alphonsus Ngwadom, OBIANOEKWU 111 of Mbubu Amiri Kingdom.
By his coronation, Prof. Ngwadom has become HRH SIR EZE Alphonsus OBIANOKWU 1V of Mbubu, Amiri ancient Kingdom.
The community had expressed confidence in their king as the man who would rule with truth, sincerity and bring development in Mbubu.
“He is well educated, exposed and has huge experience to transform this community,” said a community leader.
Prof Ngwadom is the Chairman of African Diaspora Coalition of North Carolina and CEO of Almarch Counseling Services, PLLC.
He is the CEO and Administrator of Almarch Counseling Services and Almarch Family Care, LLC, board member of Nigerian Mental Health Professional USA.
