Oklahoma ABA Practice Owner Pleads Guilty to Medicaid Fraud

The Plea and the Sentence

OKLAHOMA CITY – Maria Dianda, a behavior analyst from Nichols Hills and owner of Advanced Behavioral Solutions, pleaded guilty in early June to Medicaid fraud and identity theft, according to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office. She used information from Medicaid recipients to submit false bills for services she did not provide over several years. Some of these bills were sent while she was out of the country.

As a result of her plea, Dianda received a three-year deferred sentence and must pay $65,907 in restitution to Oklahoma Medicaid, along with fines and investigation costs. Assistant Attorney General Candace Arnold and Agent Daniel Shcolnik led the investigation. The announcement did not explain how the case started.

“Our office takes all claims of fraud very seriously and works to hold accountable anyone who takes advantage of the system.” – Gentner Drummond, Oklahoma Attorney General (June 2026)

Advanced Behavioral Solutions, LLC is a behavioral health company in Oklahoma City that focuses on intensive ABA therapy for children and employs registered behavior technicians (RBTs). The attorney general’s announcement identifies Maria Dianda as the owner and states that she is board-certified. The company’s website, last updated in 2023, lists its director and owner as Mia Dianda, a BCBA and Licensed Behavior Analyst in Oklahoma with experience in special education, ABA, and autism since 2000.

Data Mining Found the Second Case

The June 9 announcement also reported a conviction. Janice Cliver-Dudash, a Licensed Professional Counselor from Ocoee, Tennessee, billed Oklahoma Medicaid for behavioral therapy services she did not actually provide, including billing for people who had died. She was found guilty of Medicaid fraud, identity theft, and breaking the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act. She received a seven-year deferred sentence, must complete 50 hours of community service, and pay $19,322 in restitution.

According to the announcement, “The scheme was discovered by MFCU’s data mining process,” which refers to the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office. Her case was included in Operation Sooner Shield, the unit’s spring enforcement effort. An April 1 announcement said the operation concluded investigations in 10 counties, resulting in 10 arrests, 2 surrenders, 10 criminal cases, and 1 civil action, with over $1.5 million in restitution and fines identified.

Oklahoma’s data-mining program is one of the oldest in the United States. Since 2013, any unit that wants to use federal matching funds to investigate claims data for fraud must get approval from the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG). Oklahoma received its first approval in April 2014, and OIG renewed it on April 24, 2026. Now, 26 out of 53 units nationwide have this approval.

A Record Year for Enforcement

Two weeks after the Oklahoma announcement, the Justice Department revealed its 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown. This effort charged 455 people in schemes involving more than $6.5 billion in alleged false claims. The Oklahoma case was included in this larger enforcement push. Fifty state Medicaid Fraud Control Units participated, the most ever, including Oklahoma’s unit. The takedown also set a new record for Medicaid fraud, with 295 people charged in cases involving over $518 million in false claims.

OIG’s annual report provides a state-level overview: In fiscal year 2025, there were 1,185 convictions across the 53 Medicaid Fraud Control Units, with 856 for fraud, and nearly $2 billion recovered through criminal and civil cases.

Oklahoma’s unit is primarily funded by the federal government. A $4.8 million grant covers 75 percent of its fiscal 2026 costs, with the state paying the remaining $1.6 million.

The Pattern and the Credential Question

For ABA providers, the Dianda case is the second in a month involving a practice owner. Another case is Glenroy Patterson, a board-certified behavior analyst who owned Trading Spaces ABA in Glastonbury, Connecticut. He received $102,084 from Connecticut’s Medicaid program for ABA sessions that were never provided, as BreakingNewsABA reported on June 22. On June 4, he was given a suspended three-year prison sentence, ordered to repay the full amount, and permanently banned from being a Medicaid provider. The Oklahoma announcement does not mention a similar ban for Dianda.

It is not yet clear what action the certification board will take. The Behavior Analyst Certification Board requires its members to report criminal charges, outcomes, and signed agreements within 30 days. They also must report within 30 days if they or their company are named in an investigation. Advanced Behavioral Solutions’ website says the company “is dedicated to abiding by the ethical standards outlined by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB).”

Right now, it is not possible to verify any of this from outside sources. The BACB’s public Certificant Registry, which employers, licensing boards, and payers use to check if a BCBA is certified and in good standing, is currently unavailable. A notice on the site says it will be down “until further notice.” This outage happened after the board switched to a new portal on June 29, as BreakingNewsABA reported on July 2. The notice was still there on July 3, so BreakingNewsABA could not confirm Dianda’s certification status. The board’s office will reopen on July 6. Until the registry is back online, Dianda’s status cannot be confirmed.

AT A GLANCE

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