Former Most Wanted Fugitive Sentenced to 36 Months in Prison for Multi-Million Dollar Health Care Fraud

Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, Etienne Allonce, the former co-owner of Medical Solutions Management, Inc. (MSM), a durable medical equipment supplier in Hicksville, New York, was sentenced by United States Circuit Judge Joseph F. Bianco to 36 months’ imprisonment for health care fraud.  The Court also ordered Allonce to pay $4,444,468 in restitution.  Allonce pleaded guilty in April 2019.  In September 2018, Allonce was expelled from Haiti where he had fled 11 years earlier shortly before his indictment in the Eastern District of New York.  Prior to his return to the United States, Allonce was placed on the Most Wanted List of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG).   

Seth D. DuCharme, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Scott Lampert, Special Agent-in-Charge, Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General, New York Region (HHS-OIG), and William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the sentence.

“Allonce ran, but ultimately could not hide from the consequences of fleecing Medicare and Medicaid out of millions of dollars at taxpayers’ expense,” stated Acting United States Attorney DuCharme.  “The defendant may have delayed the inevitable, but he has now faced justice for breaking the law.” 

“Our watchdog agency is dedicated to investigating those responsible for health care fraud, including this former Most Wanted health care fugitive, who stole taxpayer money meant to pay for legitimate patient care,” stated HHS-OIG Special Agent-in-Charge Lampert. “Working closely with our law enforcement partners, our agents will continue to hold such fraudsters accountable for their crimes.”

Between April 2003 and March 2007, Allonce, and his wife and MSM co-owner Michel Allonce, submitted approximately $10 million in false claims to Medicare and Medicaid, seeking payment for medical supplies never ordered by MSM and never delivered to patients at nursing homes.  Etienne Allonce fled the United States just hours before federal agents arrested his wife in 2007. 

Michel Allonce was tried and convicted by a jury in August 2012.  She was sentenced in April 2013 to 12 years’ imprisonment, and ordered to forfeit $1.3 million seized by the government. 

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Long Island Criminal Division.  Assistant United States Attorneys Charles P. Kelly, Burton T. Ryan, Jr. and Madeline O’Connor are in charge of the prosecution.

The Defendant:

ETIENNE ALLONCE
Age:  56
Port au Prince, Haiti

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 07-CR-889 (JFB)