David Marrero, $5.8M HIV Infusion Scheme, Florida 2010

A former husband and wife duo has been sentenced for their roles in a $5.8 million fraudulent HIV infusion scheme in Miami, Florida.

David Marrero, a founder of and consultant at Tendercare Medical Center Inc., was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the scheme to defraud the Medicare program, announced the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS).

Marrero's ex-wife, Maria Valero Marrero, the owner and operator of Tendercare, was also sentenced to 70 months in prison. In addition to the prison terms, David and Maria Marrero each were sentenced to three years of supervised release.

The duo was ordered to pay restitution jointly and severally with co-defendants in the amount of $2.7 million. David Marrero was convicted by a federal jury in May 2010 of one count of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of money laundering. Maria Marrero pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud in April 2010.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, David and Maria Marrero participated in a scheme to defraud Medicare by submitting claims for injection and infusion treatments that were medically unnecessary and, in most instances, were not provided.

The scheme, which occurred between January 2005 and December 2007, resulted in Tendercare submitting approximately $5.8 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare. Medicare paid Tendercare approximately $2.7 million.

The cases were prosecuted by Fraud Section Trial Attorney Charles D. Reed and former Special Trial Attorney Martha Talley, on detail from HHS-OIG. The cases were brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida and the Criminal Division's Fraud Section.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/former-husband-and-wife-sentenced-their-roles-58-million-fraudulent-hiv-infusion-scheme-miami