$51M Medicare fraud in Jacksonville: free phones used to steal residents' identities
Jacksonville residents were lured into a $51M health care fraud scheme via fake free phone offers. Four men face federal charges.
Jacksonville residents' data used in $51M HIV prescription fraud
A fraudulent health care scheme that generated $51 million in false insurance claims used the promise of free government-sponsored cellphones to collect personal information from Jacksonville residents, news4jax.com reports.
Federal investigators say Albert Chester II, Charlie Griffin and others targeted community outreach events — including charity missions serving people in need — to gather residents' data. Those individuals, believing they were signing up for a free phone, instead had their information used to obtain prescriptions for expensive HIV medication they had never requested.
Chester, a pharmacist at the facility at the centre of the case, is linked to more than $24 million in claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid. Investigators say he received approximately $4.9 million in proceeds. Griffin allegedly received around $14.2 million. The total claims attributed to Griffin and his co-conspirators reached $51 million and involved Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance companies.
A fourth individual, Jonathan Gholston, has already pleaded guilty and was awaiting sentencing at the time of publication. Prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of approximately $2 million from him. Ethelbert Nwangbo was charged and indicted alongside Griffin.
Federal prosecutors have stated there is no evidence that any of the patients actually needed the HIV medication prescribed in their names.
"They were basically victims of a fraud for which they had no benefit," said Curtis Fallgatter, a former federal prosecutor not involved in the case. "Their name was used and they got nothing out of it."
Fallgatter noted that targeting homeless individuals or other vulnerable people can be treated as an aggravating factor in federal sentencing. He also said prosecutors are expected to rely on both documentary evidence and witnesses who allegedly recruited patients and collected kickbacks.
If convicted, all four men could face significant federal prison sentences.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)