Federal prosecutors in North Carolina have accused Cedric Dean, a Charlotte-based housing advocate and CEO of Cedric Dean Holdings Inc., of orchestrating a multimillion-dollar Medicaid fraud scheme that allegedly exploited the personal information of unhoused individuals to bill for services never rendered.

According to a civil forfeiture complaint filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, prosecutors allege that Dean’s company billed Medicaid for more than $14 million between September 2024 and June 2025, receiving approximately $8.9 million in reimbursements for mental and behavioral health services that were largely fictitious.

The FBI raided Dean’s $1 million residence on Youngblood Road in southwest Charlotte early Thursday, seizing multiple assets, including four homes, two motor homes, two SUVs, a truck, and several bank accounts tied to Dean and his company. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office confirmed that the FBI was “engaged in court-authorized investigative activity,” but declined further comment.

Alleged Scheme to Exploit Medicaid Beneficiaries

Prosecutors say Dean—who is a certified peer support specialist and behavioral health practitioner—used his company to submit fraudulent claims under North Carolina Medicaid’s Peer Support Services and Mobile Crisis Management programs. Of the $8.9 million received, roughly $6.3 million stemmed from Mobile Crisis Management billings alone.

Witnesses who worked for Dean told investigators that he “found people on the street” and offered them food and temporary shelter in exchange for their Medicaid beneficiary information. The complaint alleges that Cedric Dean Holdings staff members routinely collected Medicaid IDs from people in homeless encampments, halfway houses, and hotels, and that they “forcefully demanded” that residents provide such information in exchange for discounted rent—without ever providing treatment or services.

In some instances, prosecutors said the company even paid doctors to misdiagnose individuals “with anything” to justify billing Medicaid.

An analysis of Cedric Dean Holdings’ claims allegedly revealed blatant fraud, including billing for services provided to a deceased patient, and claims showing one employee had supposedly delivered eight hours of crisis management to 24 patients in a single day.

Lavish Spending and Forfeiture Targets

According to bank records cited in the complaint, Dean used Medicaid funds to pay employees and family members, and spent lavishly on real estate, jewelry, and vehicles—including more than $1.5 million on property and about $256,000 on vehicles, such as GMC Yukons and RVs. Prosecutors allege Dean had no legitimate source of income, earning only $167,743 from 2018 to 2024, before suddenly receiving $10,000 weekly payments from his company starting in late 2024.

Criminal Background and Cooperation History

Before founding Cedric Dean Holdings, Dean spent over two decades in federal prison for drug trafficking and firearms offenses. He was released in 2017 after assisting prosecutors in securing a conviction against James Clay Waller, a Missouri man who murdered his wife. Prosecutors credited Dean’s cooperation and potential testimony—based on a manuscript Waller wrote confessing to the crime—as pivotal in obtaining the conviction.

Despite his past as a cooperative witness, Dean now faces one of the most significant Medicaid fraud allegations in the region.

Legal Proceedings

As of Friday, no criminal charges had been filed against Dean or his company, but the forfeiture action seeks to seize millions in assets believed to have been obtained through fraud.

The federal government is represented by Benjamin Bain-Creed of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina.

Counsel for Dean and Cedric Dean Holdings had not been identified as of Friday.

The case is United States of America v. All Funds Seized from Wells Fargo Account XXXXXX3167 et al., Case No. 3:25-cv-00804, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.