HEALTH CARE CLINIC OWNER RECEIVES FIVE YEAR PRISON SENTENCE FOR FRAUD

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Owner of Orlando Health Care Clinic Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Engaging in Medicare Fraud Scheme

The owner of an Orlando health care clinic was sentenced today to five years in prison for engaging in a $2.4 million health care fraud scheme.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley III of the Middle District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Shimon R. Richmond of the U.S. Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Florida region made the announcement.

Juan Carlos Delgado, 58, and Nereyda Infante, 48, both of Orlando, pleaded guilty on June 24, 2015, before U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron of the Middle District of Florida to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.  Infante, Delgado’s wife, who was also an owner of the health care clinic, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.  In addition to imposing the prison terms, the court ordered the defendants to pay $1,520,850 in restitution and to forfeit $1,520,850.

Delgado and Infante owned and operated several health care clinics in Orlando, Florida, under variations of the name Prestige Medical.  According to admissions made in connection with their guilty pleas, between February 2012 and September 2014, the defendants fraudulently billed Medicare on behalf of the Prestige clinics for services that were never provided and for medications that were not prescribed or administered.  In particular, Delgado and Infante admitted to billing Medicare for pentostatin, an expensive anticancer chemotherapeutic medication used to treat Leukemia, despite never administering the drug.  Delgado and Infante admitted also that, to further the scheme, they submitted false documents to Medicare regarding the ownership and operation of the Prestige Clinics.

In connection with the scheme, the defendants billed Medicare approximately $2.4 million, over $1.2 million of which was for pentostatin.  Medicare paid approximately $1.5 million on the fraudulent claims.

The case is being investigated by the HHS-OIG and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Florida.  The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Andrew H. Warren of the Fraud Section.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged over 2,300 defendants who collectively have billed the Medicare program for over $7 billion.  In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.