Cobb Dentist Gets 7 Years for Medicaid Fraud

A dentist with practices in Marietta and Roswell and who fled the country after being indicted for Medicaid fraud has pleaded guilty, the Georgia Attorney General's office said today. 

Kenneth Morris Wiggins, Jr. pleaded guilty to a single count of Medicaid fraud in Cobb Superior Court. He was sentenced by Cobb Superior Court Judge Gregory Poole to serve seven years in prison and three years probation and was ordered to pay more than $2.2 million in restitution. 

Wiggins had been the owner of Cosmetic and Family Dentistry practices in Marietta and Roswell and was enrolled in the Georgia Medicaid program as a dental service provider.

According to prosecutors, he fraudulently billed Medicaid for tooth re-implantations and and other procedures for 220 Medicaid patients between January 2007 and March 2009 without performing any of them. 

He was indicted in 2011 and initially fled to The Netherlands before being apprehended by U.S. Marshals in Belize in February, prosecutors said. 

Morris waived extradition in Miami and has been held in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center since early March.