Two owners of a Miami home health care agency were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for their roles in a massive $20 million Medicare fraud scheme.
Ariel Rodriguez, 41, and Reynaldo Navarro, 37, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke to 73 and 74 months in prison, respectively, for their participation in the scheme.
The two men were ordered to pay $14 million in restitution, joint and several with their co-defendants. Two co-defendants, Melissa Rodriguez and Ysel Salado, were sentenced to four years of probation.
The scheme involved billing Medicare for unnecessary home health care and therapy services. Ariel Rodriguez and Navarro conspired with patient recruiters to provide patients to their agency, Serendipity Home Health Inc., in exchange for kickbacks and bribes.
The two men used these payments to fund their scheme, which resulted in Medicare paying out $14 million in false and fraudulent claims. From April 2007 through March 2009, Serendipity submitted approximately $20 million in false claims to Medicare.
Ariel Rodriguez and Navarro pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. The case was investigated by the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). The case was brought as a part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Ariel Rodriguez and Navarro were each ordered to pay $14 million in restitution, joint and several with their co-defendants. The sentences were announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida; John V. Gillies, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI’s Miami Field Office; and Special Agent-in-Charge Christopher Dennis of the HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Office of Investigations Miami Office.
Related Federal Cases
- Christopher Gregory Wayne, Health Care Fraud, Conspiracy to Violate Narcotics Laws, Florida 2014 · Florida
- Francisco Enrique Chavez, Health Care Fraud, Florida 2013 · Florida
- Darrell A. Hall, Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Substance, Health Care Fraud, Tax Evasion, Ohio 2009 · Florida
- Orlando Pascual Jr., Medicare Fraud, Florida 2023 · Florida
- Juan A. Tony Marrero, Medicare Fraud Scheme, Florida 2023 · Florida
Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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