South Florida Health Care Facility Owner Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Role in Largest Health

[TexasTowelie]

South Florida Health Care Facility Owner Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Role in Largest Health Care Fraud Scheme Ever Charged by The Department of Justice


A federal district judge sentenced a south Florida health care facility owner to 20 years in prison today after being found guilty in the largest health care fraud scheme charged by the U.S. Justice Department. The case involves a decades-long scheme of kickbacks and money laundering in connection with fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid for services deemed medically unnecessary.

Philip Esformes, 50, of Miami Beach, Florida, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola of the Southern District of Florida, who also sentenced Esformes to three years supervised release. A hearing to determine restitution and forfeiture has been scheduled for Nov. 21.

After an eight-week jury trial, Esformes was found guilty in April 2019 of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, two counts of receipt of kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program, four counts of payment of kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, nine counts of money laundering, two counts of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery and one count of obstruction of justice

“For nearly two decades, Philip Esformes bankrolled his lavish lifestyle with taxpayer dollars, paying bribes with impunity and robbing Medicare and Medicaid by billing for services that people did not need or get,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski. “It is a credit to the tenacity of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners that the man behind one of the biggest health care frauds in history will be spending 20 years in prison.”

“Philip Esformes will now spend years in prison for orchestrating a kick-back and money laundering scheme that defrauded America’s health care system out of millions of dollars,” said U.S. Attorney Fajardo Orshan of the Southern District of Florida. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida remains committed to working with our partners at the Department’s Criminal Division, the FBI and HHS-OIG to root out health care fraud and protect taxpayer dollars for patient care.”

“Philip Esformes is a man driven by almost unbounded greed,” said Deputy Special Agent in Charge Denise M. Stemen of the FBI’s Miami Field Office. “The illicit road Esformes took to satisfy his greediness led to millions in fraudulent health care claims, the largest amount ever charged by the Department of Justice. Along that road, Esformes cycled patients through his facilities in poor condition where they received inadequate or unnecessary treatment, then improperly billed Medicare and Medicaid. Taking his despicable conduct further, he bribed doctors and regulators to advance his criminal conduct and even bribed a college official in exchange for gaining admission for his son to that university. The FBI and its partners are constantly investigating health care fraudsters, big and small, who steal money from taxpayers at the expense of patients in need of quality medical care.”

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/south-florida-health-care-facility-owner-sentenced-20-years-prison-role-largest-health-care

[Doreen]

1. I keep reading about these people who

are going to prison for stealing from the healthcare system but yet we get told we are the ones who are burdening the healthcare system. WTF??

[Sancho]

2. Put Rick Scott in jail!!!

...also guilty of Medicare fraud! Selective justice is not justice.