Two men residing in Miami, Florida, were found guilty of illegally billing $1,400 million dollars in laboratory testing services , a fraud involving rural hospitals also in the states of Georgia and Missouri, the United States Department of Justice reported on Tuesday.
After 21 days of trial, a federal jury from the Middle District of Florida found Jorge Pérez, of 59 years, and Ricardo Pérez, from 59, who “invoiced $1, 62 millions of dollars in laboratory testing services that were medically unnecessary”.
The “sophisticated billing transfer scheme involved rural hospitals” , which were used as “billing screens to submit claims for services that were mostly performed in external laboratories,” said a statement from the Department of JusticeAmerican.
Both were found guilty of “health care fraud on five specific occasions and conspired to launder the proceeds of this fraudulent scheme.”
“These defendants took advantage of and exploited the vulnerable — vulnerable hospitals, vulnerable underserved communities and vulnerable patients seeking addiction treatment — for the sole purpose of “lining their pockets,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. Justice.
The two were involved in an “elaborate” fraud scheme to take advantage of the facilities hospitals in various states and “defrauding private insurers”.
According to court documents and evidence presented, the defendants took control of “financially distressed rural hospitals” through management and purchasing agreements.
Jorge and Ricardo Pérez promised to prevent the closure of these rural hospitals in Florida, Georgia and Missouri by turning them into laboratory testing sites; however, they “billed fraudulent laboratory tests” for hundreds of millions of dollars over several years.
Furthermore, much of the laboratory tests billed through these hospitals “involved screening tests for drugs in urine for vulnerable patients in addiction treatment” who had been enticed by bribing recruiters and providers.
“The tests billed by the defendants were often not medically necessary,” he noted.
Both were convicted for “conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, five counts of health care fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering,” for which they face a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
You may also be interested in:
• Subject is sentenced for fraud and identity theft after stealing USPS collection boxes in Florida
• Two people are sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for setting up 21 fake pharmacies in Miami
• Florida Man Charged With $62 Million Cryptocurrency Worldwide Fraud