The United States Attorney's Office
Southern District of Florida

Public Affairs Office:
Alicia Valle
Special Counsel to the U.S. Attorney
(305) 961-9153
Public Affairs Fax
(305) 530-7055

Press Release

February 12, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MIRAMAR ACCOUNTANT PLEADS GUILTY TO MEDICARE FRAUD SCHEME

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, Christopher B. Dennis, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Miami Regional Office, and Alex Hager, Acting Commissioner, State of Florida, Office of Financial Regulation, Bureau of Money Transmitter Regulation, announced that defendant Alexander Ramirez, an accountant and tax preparer, of Miramar, FL, pled guilty this afternoon to one count of health care fraud and one count of failure to file currency transaction reports. A co-defendant, Madelin Llanes, pled guilty to health-care fraud on Thursday, February 5, 2009.

According to the parties' joint factual statement in support of the plea, the fraud involved durable medical equipment (DME), which is equipment that can be used in the home on a repeated basis for a medical purpose. Where DME is prescribed or ordered by a physician, an authorized Medicare provider who supplies the equipment to a Medicare beneficiary may be eligible for reimbursement by Medicare.

Ramirez owned Universal Care, Corp [sic], purportedly a DME supply company, and controlled Max Medical Supply, Corp [sic], a second such company, using a straw owner. From 2004 through 2006, these companies submitted a total of $2,334,934 in claims to Medicare for DME that the companies had purportedly supplied to Medicare beneficiaries based on physicians' prescriptions or written orders. Based on these claims, Medicare paid the companies a total of approximately $797,096. In fact, however, the companies supplied little or none of the equipment, and little or none of it had been prescribed or ordered by the physicians listed in the claims.

In addition, in June 2004, Ramirez briefly operated a check-cashing business, Trident Trading Enterprises Corp. d/b/a Mr. Cash. In a three-day period in early June 2004, Mr. Cash cashed 21 checks drawn on the accounts of A-1 Durable Medical Equipment and Supplies, Inc. and Angel Medical Equipment, Inc., two other purported DME suppliers. Between them, A-1 and Angel submitted a total of $9,618,427.30 in Medicare DME claims, based on which Medicare paid these companies a total of $4,405,561.10. These DME claims, like those submitted by Universal and Max Medical, were fraudulent. The 21 checks cashed by Mr. Cash were for a total of $332,792.90. Ramirez paid the cash to the owners of A-1 and Angel, not to the payees written on the checks, and he did not file currency transaction reports regarding the transactions, as Federal law requires of check-cashing businesses.

Ramirez faces a maximum sentence of ten (10) years' imprisonment on the health care fraud charge and five (5) years' imprisonment on the charge of failure to file currency transaction reports. Sentencing has been scheduled for April 21, 2009.

Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and the State of Florida, Office of Financial Regulation, Bureau of Money Transmitter Regulation. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Osborne.

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.