OR paid medicaid mogul's 2nd company too
"Julius Maximo" founder of Uplifting Journey, recipient of $2.3M in state funds, later founded 2nd company, Restorative Journey, to which OR also paid Medicaid reimbursement
“Julius Maximo,” the putative owner of Oregon company Uplifting Journey LLC, which received $2.3 million in Medicaid reimbursements from the state before apparently folding shortly after two of the residents of its Lake Oswego halfway house allegedly kidnapped, tortured and tried to murder a Seattle woman, started another, similar company that signed up for Medicaid funds and received just one state reimbursement, the day after the brutal alleged crimes occurred, according to state records obtained by Oregon Roundup via public records requests.
Oregon Roundup exclusively reported on the $2.3 million in payments to Uplifting Journey, the fact that the company had abandoned its halfway house and its Portland office by August of this year, and Oregon Health Authority (OHA), the agency that authorized and made the payments, taking no action in response to the reports of potential Medicaid fraud.
Someone used the name “Julius Maximo” to form Uplifting Journey in November 2023. By April 2024, the company was submitting daily reimbursement requests for allegedly providing drug treatment services in Oregon. The reimbursements stopped in March 2025, three days after King County, Washington prosecutors charged a man named Kevin Daniel Sanabria-Ojeda with trying to kill the Seattle woman after drilling her hands to obtain her PIN number.
Prosecutors allege Sanabria-Ojeda and another, anonymous, man allegedly involved with the crimes, at the time of the crimes lived in a Lake Oswego house police and neighbor reports say was operated as a halfway house by Uplifting Journey. Prosecutors say both men are members of Venezuelan drug and human trafficking gang Tren de Aragua.
Oregon Secretary of State records show “Julius Maximo” formed a new company, called Life Restoration Missions LLC, September 18, 2024. In apparent homage to his lucrative existing business, “Maximo” soon registered the name Restorative Journey for the new company, meaning the company can legally go by either Life Restoration Missions or Restorative Journey.
The OHA records newly received by Oregon Roundup show on October 25, 2024, “Maximo” enrolled Restorative Journey to receive Medicaid reimbursements from the agency for the provision of behavioral health services on an outpatient basis, the same type of services for which Uplifting Journey was at the time receiving Medicaid reimbursement.
In the Restorative Journey enrollment paperwork, “Maximo” listed himself and two other “managing employees” of the business: Anisha Bukenya and Phiona Y. Johnson. Online, I could find no evidence of an Anisha Bukenya affiliated with Oregon, other than yet another LLC, this one called Refreshing Run LLC, which someone going by the name formed April 28, 2025, according to Oregon Secretary of State records. It is as yet unknown whether Refreshing Run also applied for Medicaid reimbursements.
No one by the name of Phiona Johnson has any connections to Oregon that I could find online.
A March 11, 2024, post in the Living in Lake Oswego Facebook group welcomed a Julius Maximo as one of the group’s “new members who have joined in the past week!” The post links to the profile of a Julius Maximo.
An Instagram page for “Julius Maximo,” featuring the same profile image as the facebook page, features photos of the snappy-dressed gentleman in various locations, none of which identifiable as Oregon.
Restorative Journey’s OHA documents include information about a Dallas, Texas-based nurse practitioner named Njideka Domrufus, who works for a telehealth practice there named Ziks Health Services. The Oregon Nursing Board shows Domrufus as holding an Oregon nurse practitioner license.
I called Ziks Tuesday to inquire whether Domrufus or the practice had any relationship with Restorative Journey. The receptionist transferred me to another woman, whom the first woman said handled verifications like mine. The second woman appeared to be outside, spoke good English with a significant accent, and apologized for the repeated audible crowing of one or more nearby roosters, blaming “patients being loud.” The woman told me she would check with Domrufus and get back to me about any relationship with Restorative Journey.
She did not call me back. I called again yesterday, left a message, and have yet to receive a return call.
Included in the OHA records is a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency controlled substance registration certificate, bearing Domrufus’s name. However, the address on the card is for 511 SW 10th Ave., Suite 601 in Portland, not the Ziks address in Dallas.
The Portland address is, the Internet tells me, the home of Healthcore Psychiatry Associates PLLC, a Texas professional limited liability company based, according to Oregon Secretary of State records, in Irving, TX. I called Healthcore’s Portland office Tuesday in inquire about Domrufus’s connection with the practice, if any, and have received no response.
OHA records obtained by Oregon Roundup show the agency made exactly one Medicaid reimbursement payment to Restorative Journey, in the amount of $159 on January 22, 2025, the day after prosecutors allege sister company Uplifting Journey’s residents left a woman for dead alongside a Washington highway.
Last week, an OHA spokesperson declined to respond to a question about whether the agency was investigating Uplifting Journey, urging me instead to file a fraud complaint with OHA on the subject matter of my extensive public reporting on this matter while admonishing me “people should not be discriminated against for seeking health care.”
I have submitted the suggested complaint and have received no response. No state official has expressed publicly an interest in determining the propriety of the Medicaid reimbursements to Uplifting Journey.
Jeff, excellent reporting. I would like to know the names of individuals employed by the State of Oregon who, 1) processed these applications; 2) approved the payments to these entities; 3) spoke with Julius Maximo at any time.
Unreal. Oregon leadership loves corruption, human suffering and theft. It defines our state's management.