Fourth Circuit Tosses Medicaid Counseling Fraud Conviction

April 24, 2026, 4:34 PM UTC

The former director of a mental health counseling company convinced the Fourth Circuit that the government produced insufficient evidence to prove he defrauded Medicaid, the appeals court said Friday.

Richard Davis’s convictions for two counts of health-care fraud are vacated because the government didn’t show beyond a reasonable doubt that he falsely billed the program, Chief Judge Albert Diaz said in an nonprecedential split decision.

The government must offer affirmative evidence sufficient to convict, and a “whiff of fraud in the air isn’t enough,” the opinion said.

Davis owned and directed Virginia-based Innovative Family Services LLC, which provides mental health ...

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