Georgia – Last week, state and federal officials said that a woman from Warner Robins had been found guilty and sentenced for running a large-scale fraud scheme that stole millions of dollars from Georgia’s Medicaid program.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr revealed that Elizabeth Sue Ivester, 63, pled guilty in federal court to one count of health care fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. The plea was made in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia in Macon on October 2, 2025. Ivester was given a 10-year sentence on January 8, 2026. Ivester will spend seven years in federal prison and the rest of the time on strict probation.
Ivester was ordered to pay back $5,437,283.26 as part of the sentence. This is the whole amount that prosecutors believe Ivester stole from the Georgia Medicaid program. Investigators say that the fraud consisted of tens of thousands of fake claims sent in over a long period of time.
Ivester owned and ran Liberty Medical, Inc., a business that charged Medicaid for medical equipment that was never ordered or delivered. Authorities said Ivester filed 77,095 false claims that added up to more than $5 million. The claims used the identification information of 7,684 Medicaid beneficiaries without permission and incorrectly named the doctor who wrote the prescription.
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Carr said the case shows how hard the state works to protect public health care dollars.
“Let this send a message to anyone who attempts to abuse and exploit our Medicaid program — you will be identified, prosecuted, and forced to pay back every dollar you stole,” said Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.
“This was a massive scheme to defraud not only Georgia taxpayers but real patients in need of care. It’s unacceptable, it’s illegal and it won’t be tolerated in our state.”
Carr’s Medicaid Fraud and Patient Protection Division, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, worked together to investigate the case. Officials from HHS-OIG noted that this case shows a larger commitment to protecting government health care programs and making sure that people who break the law are punished.
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Ivester was charged with a crime as part of a concerted statewide law enforcement effort that led to charges against 324 people for scamming programs meant to help elderly and disabled people. The Attorney General’s office sent a special assistant U.S. attorney to handle the case, and HHS-OIG investigated it.
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Since Carr took office, the Medicaid Fraud and Patient Protection Division has gotten more than 90 people convicted of crimes, which has led to more than $19 million in restitution orders. The division has also gotten more than $108 million in civil recoveries to help protect Georgia’s Medicaid program.
