Brothers admit to using Medicaid to fund gambling

 BOSTON. A Two brothers who once co-owned five nursing homes pleaded guilty yesterday to taking Medicaid funds intended for food, medicine and sanitation for their residents and using the cash on luxury boats and gambling.

Joel Logan, 53, of Norwell, and Todd Logan, 47, of Pembroke, will both serve five years probation and pay $150,000 in restitution for a variety of offenses tied to their scheme.

According to Attorney General Martha Coakley's Office, the pair — which owned two nursing homes in Braintree and one each in Middleborough, Quincy and Weymouth — bilked Medicaid funds from Jan. 2001 through June 2003 for their own use.

Some of the funds were used to bet on horse races, authorities said.

The Logans also pleaded guilty yesterday to embezzling roughly $77,000 in deductions from employee wages intended to fund a 401(k) plan and disability and insurance policies.