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Miami Home Health Owner Pleads Guilty to $60 Million Medicare Scam
MIAMI, FLORIDA – In a shocking turn of events, Rodolfo Nieto Jr., 40, owner of a Miami health care agency, pleaded guilty to participating in a $60 million home health Medicare fraud scheme, announced the FBI and HHS.
According to court documents, Nieto, the owner and operator of Ronat Home Health Care Inc., accepted kickbacks in return for recruiting Medicare beneficiaries to be placed at Nany Home Health Inc., a Miami home health agency. The owners and operators of Nany paid Nieto kickbacks in return for allowing Nany to bill the Medicare program on behalf of the patients Nieto had recruited through Ronat.
The scheme, which took place from approximately January 2006 to November 2009, resulted in Nany billing Medicare for home health services purportedly provided by Ronat. In a related case, on April 25, 2012, Roberto Gonzalez and Olga Gonzalez, president and vice president of Nany, and their son, Fabian Gonzalez, were sentenced to 120, 87 and 87 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in the scheme.
The guilty plea was 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; Jeffrey C. Mazanec, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI’s Miami Field Office; and Special Agent-in-Charge Christopher B. Dennis of the HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Office of Investigations Miami Office.
Nieto faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain or loss at sentencing, scheduled for October 23, 2012.
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Joseph S. Beemsterboer of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG, and was brought as 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.
Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged over 1,330 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $4 billion.
RELATED: Georgia Biz Owner Jailed for $1.5M Pain Cream Scam
RELATED: Florida Clinic Owner Gets 91-Month Sentence for $2.5M Fraud
Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes|White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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