Owner of Florida Pharmacy Sentenced for $100 Million Compounding Pharmacy Fraud Scheme

[nitpicker]

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/owner-florida-pharmacy-sentenced-15-years-prison-100-million-compounding-pharmacy-fraud

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, April 26, 2018

Owner of Florida Pharmacy Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison
Six Others Previously Sentenced

The president and owner of a Florida pharmacy that was at the center of a massive compounding pharmacy fraud scheme, which impacted private insurance companies, Medicare and TRICARE, was sentenced today to 180 months in prison and ordered to pay $54 million in restitution for his role in the scheme. Six other individuals have previously been sentenced in connection to the scheme, and another is scheduled to be sentenced on Monday, April 30. Various real properties, cars and a 50-foot boat were forfeited as part of the sentencings.
(snip)

Nicholas A. Borgesano Jr., 45, of New Port Richey, Florida, the president and owner of A to Z Pharmacy of New Port Richey, pleaded guilty on Nov. 6, 2017, in the Middle District of Florida to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to engage in monetary transactions involving criminally derived property. His sentencing was before Senior U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr of the Middle District of Florida.

According to admissions made as part of his plea agreement, Borgesano owned and operated numerous pharmacies and shell companies that he and his co-conspirators used to execute a fraud scheme involving prescription compounded medications. The scheme generated over $100 million in fraud proceeds, he admitted. Borgesano acquired and controlled A to Z Pharmacy in New Port Richey, Havana Pharmacy, Medplus/New Life Pharmacy and Metropolitan Pharmacy, all of Miami; and Jaimy Pharmacy and Prestige Pharmacy, both of Hialeah, Florida. He admitted using these pharmacies to cause the submission of false and fraudulent reimbursement claims for prescription compounded medications, chiefly pain creams and scar creams, to private insurance companies, Medicare and TRICARE. Borgesano admitted that he and his co-conspirators manipulated billing codes in the reimbursement claims and submitted reimbursement claims for pharmaceutical ingredients they did not have. Borgesano and his co-conspirators also paid kickbacks and bribes in exchange for prescriptions and patient identifying information used to further the scheme, including to a physician in exchange for the physician signing prescriptions for patients he never saw. Borgesano admitted using A to Z Pharmacy as the hub of his operation on behalf of all his pharmacies. He disbursed proceeds of the fraud scheme through a variety of methods, including by check and wire transfer to co-conspirators’ shell companies and through the purchase of assets, he admitted.
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[Angry Dragon]

1. He should rot