Wifredo Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Shimon Richmond, Special Agent in Charge, Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), and George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.

Maria Echarri, 41, of North Miami Beach, Angelina Gonzalez, 38, of Miami, Odalys del Carmen Borrego, 47, of Miami, Oslay Borrego Alarcon, 44, of Miami, were each sentenced to 108 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and were ordered to pay $20,988,632 in restitution. Victor Manuel Ron, 30, of Homestead, was sentenced to 70 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Evelyn Parrado, 28, of Homestead, was sentenced to five years of probation with one year of home confinement. Ron and Parrado were also ordered to pay $1,185,722 in restitution. Enemisis Torres, 48, of Miami, was sentenced to 51 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Aimee Geada, 39, of Miami, was sentenced to 366 days in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.

A co-conspirator, Daniel Suarez, 24, of Miami, previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349, and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

According to the court record, Suarez, Echarri, Gonzalez, Borrego, and Alarcon were the owners of eight separate pharmacies that submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicare that they provided pursuant to written prescriptions when, in fact, such items were not properly prescribed or actually provided to Medicare beneficiaries. In total, Suarez, Echarri, Gonzalez, Borrego, and Alarcon submitted more than $20 million in false claims to the Medicare Part D program. Ron, who had previously convicted for staging auto accidents and defrauding insurance companies, used his co-defendant wife, Parrado, to pose as record owner of a pharmacy, which he used to submit in excess of $1 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare. Torres and Geada worked at a Miami clinic that Torres owned and operated, and each forged and altered pharmaceutical prescriptions which were used at the nine previously mentioned pharmacies. Torres caused the submission of millions of dollars and Geada caused the submission of at least $500,000, in false and fraudulent claims. Both conspiracies were accomplished in part by the use of a number of patient recruiters who received kickbacks in return for referring Medicare Part D beneficiaries to the nine separate pharmacies that these seven defendants controlled. Suarez, Echarri, Gonzalez, Borrego, and Alarcon used the fraudulently obtained proceeds to benefit themselves, including the purchase of luxury automobiles (ie: a Rolls Royce Ghost, Bentley, Range Rover and Mercedes Benz S63 a.m.G). Ron and Parrado used their fraud proceeds to fund other businesses, Spectrum Aesthetics Center for Cosmetic Surgery and Spectrum Management of Florida.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the HHS-OIG and FBI. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Roger Cruz.

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 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 www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.