Press Release
MIAMI DME OWNER SENTENCED FOR CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MEDICARE FRAUD
March 27, 2009
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, Miami Field Office, announced today’s sentencing of defendant Alexander Puig, of Miami, to 90 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch also ordered the defendant to pay in restitution in the amount of $1,435,840.
According to the Indictment and the factual proffer read in open court at the time of the plea, the defendant was one of the actual owners of Baez Medical Equipment Corp. (Baez Medical), a durable medical equipment company purportedly doing business in Miami-Dade County. From November 9, 2005, through May 24, 2006, Baez Medical submitted approximately $4,322,216 in claims to Medicare, resulting in the payment by Medicare of approximately $1,435,840.
During the investigation, agents interviewed the top four referring physicians of Baez Medical. Each doctor stated that he/she had not treated any of the patients for which Baez Medical billed Medicare. Subsequently, at least 10 Medicare beneficiaries complained to Medicare when they realized that their Medicare numbers were being used to submit claims for services that were not, in fact, rendered to them.
The investigation revealed that defendant Puig was one of the individuals who controlled Baez Medical, instructing the nominee owner to incorporate the business, apply for and obtain a Medicare provider number, and open three separate corporate bank accounts for Baez Medical. Once Medicare began paying the fraudulent claims, the defendant laundered the fraud proceeds through Yerri Consulting Company and Pepin Consulting Inc., two companies which were set up by the defendant and his co-conspirators solely for the purposes of laundering the fraud proceeds from Baez Medical.
U.S. Attorney Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the FBI in this case. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel Bernstein.
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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