Miami Pharmacy Owner of Convicted of Medicare Fraud, Co-defendant Acquitted
After a six day trial in Miami, a federal jury in Miami convicted Gustavo Smith, 43, the owner of a Miami pharmacy for his role in a $3 million Medicare fraud scheme and for money laundering of all 17 counts charged against him in the September 2007 Indictment.
The charges included: conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, to commit health care fraud, and to submit false claims to the Medicare program; seven counts of health care fraud; seven counts of submitting false claims to the Medicare program; conspiracy to commit money laundering; and one count of money laundering.
Smith’s co-defendant, Friedhelm Schock, the nominee owner of Medstar, was acquitted by the jury on all charged counts.
According to Schock's defense attorney, Michael Band of Adorno & Yoss, the government argued that Schock was the "nominee" owner of the pharmacy, signed all the Medicare documents, opened all the bank accounts, formed the corporation, received monies far in excess of what reflected the work he performed at the pharmacy and lied to the government to cover up the fraud.
Continue reading "Miami Pharmacy Owner of Convicted of Medicare Fraud, Co-defendant Acquitted" »
Check this out. Usually you would think of a psychiatrist as being someone who treats patients who suffer from auditory or visual hallucinations. However, an Illinois psychiatrist is headed to federal prison for two and a half years for defrauding Medicare of $1.75 million for submitting bills to Medicare for patients he never saw.
On April 2, the same day that seven co-defendants were indicted 
Seven Miami-area residents were 
On April 2, 2008, U.S. District Court Judge Adalberto Jordan of the Southern District of Florida sentenced defendant Michael Labrada, 27, of Miami to a 97 month prison term and Miguel Castillo, 42, of Miami, to a 57 month prison term for their participation in a 
billions of dollars charged to Medicare nationwide for HIV and AIDS drugs and services, billing records show.
commit health care fraud violations and conspiracy to commit structuring violations. Defendant Perez had pled guilty to conspiracy to structure financial transactions.
According to the indictment, Ramos worked as an EMT coordinator for A-Stat Ambulance Services Inc., which was owned by Guadalupe Garces Jr. and Araceli Garces. Medicaid and Medicare placed a vendor hold on that ambulance provider -- withholding payment to the company -- after federal agents determined that the owners were defrauding the federal and state health insurance programs.
