Feds: Former NCSU football player's home paid for by Medicaid fraud

The federal government has linked the $1.5 million home of a former North Carolina State University football player and booster to suspected Medicaid fraud and believes Eric Leak and his wife, Emily, should forfeit the property as a penalty.

Posted 5:38 p.m. Apr 7, 2016 — Updated 9:30 p.m. Apr 8, 2016

RALEIGH, N.C. — The federal government has linked the $1.5 million home of a former North Carolina State University football player and booster to suspected Medicaid fraud and believes Eric Leak and his wife, Emily, should forfeit the property as a penalty.

Special Agent Brison A. Lyons II of the IRS outlined the case against the Leaks in a court document filed last November.

The IRS claims the Leaks bought and renovated the house using money from a Medicaid fraud scheme.

Aside from putting down a $500,000 to buy the home, agents say the Leaks spent $38,000 to turn the attic into an exercise room and barber shop. They also paid more than $50,000 for an elaborate pool. Bank records show the renovations were paid for with money from the couple’s behavioral health counseling business, Nature's Reflections.

According to a 2015 search warrant for that business, employees claimed Leak told them to "write service notes for services not rendered." Nature's Reflections billed Medicaid for $8.7 million between 2012 and 2014, more than any other counseling agency of its kind in the state.

Eric Leak has also run afoul of NCAA and state policies that prohibit college athletes from accepting gifts or financial benefits from boosters.

In a 2015, federal investigators seized a high-end sports car that Leak helped purchase for N.C. State basketball player C.J. Leslie. Agents said the down payment for the car came from the counseling business.

State and federal agents have returned to the Leaks' property at 5022 Isabella Cannon Drive twice in the past three weeks. On Wednesday, an agent with the State Bureau of Investigation directed traffic while a BMW was removed from Leak's garage.

Authorities involved in both raids declined to offer detail on what they were looking for, and Leak did not want to comment.

To date, no charges have been filed.

Suggest A Correction