MEDICARE FRAUD STRIKE FORCE DEFENDANT
SENT TO FEDERAL PRISON FOR 10 YEARS FOR CONSPIRING
TO DEFRAUD MEDICARE FOR OVER 17 MILLION DOLLARS
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Alice Fisher, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, Melody Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation announce today that defendant Ricardo R. Aguera a/k/a Pichi, the owner of three Miami durable medical equipment (DME) companies, was sentenced to 121 months imprisonment, 3 years supervised release, and approximately $1.7 million in restitution for defrauding the Medicare Program of $17,373,000.
Ricardo Aguera owned three Miami companies, FNA Services, Poey Medical Services, and Atlantis Pro-Med Inc., which were involved in his scheme to defraud Medicare. Since 1999, Ricardo Aguera has been paying Medicare beneficiaries throughout Miami-Dade County to gain access to their Medicare information. After gaining access to their Medicare cards, Ricardo Aguera billed Medicare for unnecessary services including oxygen concentrator and nebulizers. Un-indicted co-conspirator patients testified against Ricardo Aguera at trial saying that they were paid, did not need the treatments or medication, and threw it in the trash. When asked why they participated in the scheme the patients said they needed the money. According to trial testimony, Ricardo Aguera paid $100 per month if the patients agreed to accept unneeded aerosol medications, like albuteral, and $150 per month if the patients agreed to take an oxygen concentrator also.
To get bogus aerosol medications, Ricardo Aguera reached a deal with co-conspirator pharmacy owners, Henry Gonzalez and Alfonso Rodriguez. In addition to referring his paid patients to these pharmacies, Ricardo Aguera helped the pharmacy owners get other DME owners to bring their paid patients. From 2000 to 2003, the pharmacies billed the Medicare program for over 20 million dollars and was paid $17,373,000. To purchase the DME companies, Ricardo Aguera relied on the help of convicted Medicare fraud attorney Benjamin Metsch.
“Our Strike Force teams are working diligently to assure that people who corrupt our health care system are brought to justice,” said R. Alexander Acosta, the United States Attorney in Miami. Acosta noted that these defendants will do substantial jail time for stealing from Medicare and we intend to seek appropriate sentences based on the losses suffered by Medicare. We need to do this to protect the health and welfare of the seniors and disabled members of our community and protect the Medicare program.
Mr. Acosta and Ms. Fisher commended the investigative efforts of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Kirk Ogrosky, Deputy Chief of the Fraud Section of the Department of Justice, and Jeffrey A. Neiman, Trial Attorney in the Fraud Section of the Department of Justice in Washington, DC.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov/ or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov/.
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