Press Release
DEFENDANT PLEADS GUILTY IN A MASSIVE MEDICARE FRAUD SCHEME
September 6, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced today that defendant Gianni Suarez Vazquez, a participant in a massive Medicare fraud scheme, pled guilty today to mail fraud and money laundering charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks on November 15, 2007.
According to the court records, between November 2003 and August 2004, defendant Suarez Vazquez incorporated or set up two medical equipment companies, GK Medical, Inc. and Suplident International Corporation, in Palm Beach County. Thereafter, he obtained Medicare provider numbers for both companies to enable the companies to submit claims directly to Medicare. To conceal his ownership and control of the companies, Suarez Vazquez used nominee owners, including his mother, on the companies' Articles of Incorporation and Medicare Provider Agreements.
After setting up the companies, Suarez Vazquez and his partners obtained patient and physician information, which they used to prepare bogus prescriptions and/or certificates of medical necessity. The bogus prescriptions and certificates purported to authorize the provision of various types of medical equipment for the named Medicare beneficiaries. In truth, however, the prescriptions and certificates were prepared by the defendant's accomplices and contained forged physician signatures.
Suarez Vazquez and his partners provided the bogus prescriptions and certificates to Miami billing companies for submission to Medicare. The billing companies prepared Medicare claims that sought reimbursement for the cost of the equipment listed in the bogus prescriptions and certificates, even though such equipment was never authorized by a physician or provided to the beneficiaries.
During the four-month period between November 18, 2003 and March 23, 2004, GK Medical caused the billing companies to submit more than $5.2 million in fraudulent claims. During the two-month period between June 7, 2004 and August 12, 2004, Suplident caused the billing companies to submit more than $4.5 million in fraudulent claims. Medicare processed the fraudulent claims and issued reimbursement checks, most of which the defendant and his accomplices cashed at Miami check cashing stores. In total, during the course of the scheme, the defendant Suarez Vazquez and his partners submitted more than $9.8 million in bogus Medicare claims.
On August 4, 2004, the defendant and his mother, Maura Vazquez, fled the United States for Costa Rica after Maura Vazquez received a federal grand jury subpoena requiring the production of business records for GK Medical. Suarez Vazquez was brought back to the United States to face these charges in June 2007.
Mr. Acosta commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their investigation of this matter. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Adrienne Rabinowitz.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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