Federal Bureau of Investigation Miami Field Division Press Release

JURY CONVICTS MIAMI DEFENDANT IN HEALTH CARE KICKBACK CASE

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced that on November 2, 2006, a jury convicted defendant Armando Jose Figueredo, an owner of National Medical Laboratory, Inc. and other health care companies of Florida of five counts of a federal Indictment, charging him with conspiracy to pay health care kickbacks, in violation of Title 18, U.S.C., Section 371, and payment of kickbacks and bribes involving the Medicare program, in violation of Title 42, U.S.C., Section 1320a-7b(b)(2)(A)-(B).

According to the evidence at trial, defendant Figueredo, from October 2002 through October 2004, as part of a Medicare kickback scheme involving a Miami laboratory and a Miami MRI diagnostic testing facility owned or controlled by defendant Figueredo, paid cash kickbacks to a medical doctor in exchange for the referral of patients for medical tests reimbursible by Medicare. The trial lasted nearly two weeks before the Honorable Ursula Ungaro-Benages. The defendant faces a maximum punishment of five (5) years’ imprisonment on the conspiracy charge and five (5) years’ imprisonment on each of the four substantive charges of paying kickbacks. Defendant Figueredo was acquitted of several other substantive counts of paying kickbacks and his co-defendant, Angela M. Sainz, Figueredo's business partner in an unrelated health care clinic, was acquitted of conspiring with Figueredo and others and of paying four kickbacks as part of the charged scheme. The sentencing for defendant Figueredo is scheduled for February 2, 2007.

United States Attorney Acosta noted that the prosecution of Figueredo is the direct result of the a health care fraud initiative announced December 1, 2005. The initiative is part of a multi-agency effort to attack health care fraud schemes that affect government-funded health insurance programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, in South Florida.

Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This case was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Ted Radway, who is on detail from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General as part of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s health care fraud initiative, and Assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey E. Marcus.