The bills
Billed while they were in the hospital
Prosecutors say some social adult day care claims were submitted when the Medicaid recipients could not have been there. They were hospitalized.
The accused · Flushing · He pleaded
Daniel Lee
Guilty plea · $127 million · Happy Life · Royal Adult Day Care
“I gave the payment.” “I left the envelope [for a patient] with Tony [Kim].”
10 seconds · Not the plea
- $127 millionMedicare and Medicaid bills in the plea
- $100,000+Cash recovered in the search at Happy Life
- $900,000Fraud proceeds seized from bank accounts
- 30 yearsMaximum. The sentence is not set.
- 2 March 2027Sentencing date
The search
More than $100,000 in cash. Inside Happy Life.
Law enforcement recovered it on a search warrant at the day care. About $900,000 more was seized from bank accounts.
The plea
Daniel Lee pleaded guilty. No sentence yet.
Daniel Lee admitted two conspiracies: health care fraud, and money laundering. A judge sets the sentence on 2 March 2027. Thirty years is the maximum.
- 11 July 2026Shirley and Oz on camera in Flushing. Not the plea.
- 9 November 2026Daniel Lee pleads guilty. Health care fraud and money laundering.
- 10 November 2026Justice Department announces it. Press release 26-1341. The release
- 2 March 2027Sentencing date. No sentence yet. Maximum 30 years.
“Yesterday’s guilty plea marks the end of the defendant’s long running and staggering fraud against the Medicare and Medicaid programs.”
What the record says about Daniel Lee
Daniel Lee, 57, of Flushing, was program director at Happy Life Inc. and at Royal Adult Day Care Center. The IRS Criminal Investigation release of 9 February 2026 says he is also known as “Daniel Yang” and “Donghee Yang,” and quotes his text messages about payments: “I gave the payment,” and “I left the envelope [for a patient] with Tony [Kim].” IRS release
Epoch Times (11 November 2026), reading the indictment, reports that New York State Comptroller auditors visited Royal in February 2024 and that Lee told them some daily sign-in sheets “may have been thrown away by the cleaners or left in his car or home.” Royal claimed 1,041 people on one day, 8 August 2022, at a site permitted for 81. These are allegations from court papers, relayed by that newspaper. Epoch Times
No photograph of Lee and no statement from him after the plea appears in release 26-1341 or the sources above, so none is shown. Co-defendant Inwoo Kim has not pleaded guilty.
The Nick Shirley story
Nick Shirley brought the cameras. On 11 July 2026 he walked into Flushing with Dr. Oz, and the New York Post put the film online. Ten seconds of it run above.
Four months later the case reached a courtroom. On 9 November 2026 Daniel Lee pleaded guilty, and on 10 November the Justice Department described a scheme of about $127 million in Medicare and New York Medicaid bills. Agents recovered more than $100,000 in cash at Happy Life and seized about $900,000 from bank accounts.
Shirley is the interviewer, not the defendant. The film is not the plea, and its own claims are not printed here. The Lee figures here come from Justice Department release 26-1341; the other cases cite their own sources. Sentencing is 2 March 2027. There is no sentence yet.
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