Evergreen Reporter

U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan has sentenced four individuals for their involvement in a $54.3 million Medicare fraud scheme. Luis Lacerda, Omar Solari, Michael Murphy, and Joelson Viveros received varying sentences for their roles in the operation that involved paying kickbacks and bribes to telemarketers and telemedicine providers to obtain orders for unnecessary prescriptions billed to Medicare.

Lacerda was sentenced to three years and five months in federal prison, Solari to two years and six months, Murphy to 15 months, while Viveros received five years' probation. Additionally, they were ordered to forfeit significant sums of money and pay restitution amounts corresponding to their involvement in the scheme.

The fraudulent activities took place from approximately 2018 through 2021. The conspirators paid kickbacks and bribes to telemarketing companies for recruiting Medicare beneficiaries who accepted prescriptions they did not need or want. These prescriptions mainly included topical creams.

Further kickbacks were paid to telemedicine companies whose physicians signed these prescriptions without a proper physician-patient relationship, often after brief phone conversations or no contact at all. The defendants then submitted claims to Medicare Part D using this information, resulting in reimbursements exceeding $54.3 million for unnecessary medications.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David B. Mesrobian and Trial Attorney Gary Winters from the Department of Justice's Criminal Division Fraud Section. Forfeiture proceedings were managed by Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer M. Harrington and Mai Tran.