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Head of tech company pleads guilty to health care fraud

The government has continued its prosecution of those connected to a health care fraud case that extended past borders in what the Justice Department has called “one of the largest health care fraud schemes prosecuted to date in the U.S.”

The most recent agreement connected to this case involves the chief executive officer (CEO) of the telemedicine company implicated in the alleged health care fraud scheme. The prosecution accused the CEO of conspiring to defraud Medicare and partaking in the use of illegal kickbacks to grow his business.

The prosecution claims the tech company ran an operation that would contact Medicare beneficiaries using an international telemarketing network. The telemarketers were then allegedly trained to recruit the beneficiaries and sell them braces and other medical supplies. The company would then file claims with Medicare to cover the costs of these unneeded medical devices. The government claims this scheme led to a $424 million conspiracy.

The Department of Justice has been unfolding the case for months, discussed earlier in a previous post, available here. The CEO is just one of many implicated in the scheme. He recently agreed to take a plea deal, providing the government with more information about the alleged scheme. According to the deal, the CEO stated he worked with other executives of the tech company to transfer over $10 million in illegal kickbacks to international banks. He specifically provides information about a bank in the Dominican Republic. He also explains how the company defrauded investors, claiming to provide revenue through a legitimate telemedicine enterprise. However, the prosecution claims this statement was fraudulent as the revenue was the result of criminal activity.