Dr. Roberto Aymat, Medicare Fraud, New York 2013

Manhattan Doctor Pleads Guilty to $8.5 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

A Manhattan doctor has pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to defraud Medicare out of approximately $8.5 million through the use of fraudulent HIV/AIDS clinics in New York.

Dr. Roberto Aymat, 44, a resident of Manhattan, pled guilty to conspiring to commit fraud in connection with a health care benefits program, and to committing healthcare fraud and mail fraud.

According to court documents, Aymat and his co-conspirators operated three medical clinics in New York City that purported to provide drug treatments to Medicare-eligible HIV/AIDS patients, but that were, in reality, healthcare fraud mills.

The defendants executed the fraudulent scheme by recruiting HIV/AIDS patients eligible for Medicare, and paying them kickbacks in exchange for signing on as patients at the clinics.

From January 2007 to April 2009, Aymat and his co-conspirators billed Medicare for more than 10 times the number of units of prescription drugs they actually purchased, defrauding the Medicare system of at least $8.5 million.

Aymat faces a penalty of up to 50 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge George B. Daniels on June 18, 2013.

The case is being handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds Unit, and Assistant United States Attorneys Kan M. Nawaday and Jason H. Cowley are in charge of the prosecution.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, New York Region.

Aymat’s exploitation of this vital, taxpayer-funded program was egregious and with his plea today, he has been held to account.

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