By AP/KWMU
Jefferson City, MO. – Attorney General Jay Nixon is suing the owner and operator of a southwest Missouri group home where ten people died in a fire.
Nixon says the business was secretly and illegally run by a man previously convicted of Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
The lawsuit seeks to recoup nearly 700-thousand dollars in Medicaid payments to Joplin River of Life Ministries. It also seeks damages of about $2 million and civil penalties.
A November 27 fire at the Anderson Guest House killed ten people and injured two dozen.
Nixon alleges the company lied to state regulators to conceal the fact it was run by Robert DuPont. He was sentenced to federal prison in 2003 after pleading guilty in a fraud scheme.
DuPont was barred by state law from operating a long-term care facility and prohibited under federal law from participating in the Medicaid program.