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Miami Therapist Sentenced for $205M Medicare Scam
A Miami-area therapist has been sentenced to 108 months in prison for her role in a massive Medicare fraud scheme that bilked the government out of $205 million.
Vanja Abreu, 49, of Pembroke Pines, Florida, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Seitz in the Southern District of Florida. In addition to her prison term, Judge Seitz sentenced Abreu to three years of supervised release following her prison term and ordered her to pay $72,771,469 in restitution, jointly and severally with co-defendants.
Abreu was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud after a seven-week trial in June 2012. The evidence presented at trial demonstrated that Abreu and her co-conspirators caused the submission of false and fraudulent claims to Medicare through the American Therapeutic Corporation (ATC), a Florida-based mental health care company.
The scheme involved ATC operating purported partial hospitalization programs in seven different locations throughout South Florida and Orlando. The patients were ineligible for the treatment ATC billed to Medicare and did not receive the treatment that was billed. After Medicare paid the claims, some of the co-conspirators laundered the Medicare money to create cash to pay patient kickbacks.
Abreu was a program director at ATC’s Boca Raton center from September 2005 to November 2005 and later moved to the Miami center, where she was the program director until February 2009. She was then promoted to corporate leadership and oversaw operations at all ATC centers until April 2010.
Other executives involved in the scheme include Lawrence Duran, Marianella Valera, Judith Negron, and Margarita Acevedo, who were sentenced to 50 years, 35 years, 35 years, and 91 months in prison, respectively. These sentences represent the longest sentences for healthcare fraud ordered to date.
RELATED: Miami PTA Fakes 1,500 Therapy Sessions, Lands 3-Year Prison Term
RELATED: Miami Fraudster Gets 8+ Years for $16M Scam
Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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