Pharmacy owner sentenced over $20 million Medicare fraud, spent cash on Rolls Royce, Bentley
Daniel Suarez, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges, will spend nine years in prison.
Image via Wiki Commons.
The Miami owner of eight pharmacies will spend nine years in prison, the Department of Justice announced this week, for his part in a healthcare fraud that saw him spending the money he scammed on luxury cars for himself and his family.
Daniel Suarez, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges, will also serve 3 years on supervised release, and must pay close to $21 million in restitution for the scam that bilked the Medicare part D program for more than $20 million.
[Also: Running list of notable 2015 healthcare frauds]
According to the DOJ, Suarez and some conspiring family members co-owned the pharmacies. They used patient recruiters to bring Medicare Part D beneficiaries into his pharmacies and paid the recruiters kickbacks. They then submitted false claims to Medicare for providing "pharmaceutical drugs pursuant to properly written prescriptions when, in fact, such items were not properly prescribed or actually provided to Medicare beneficiaries," the DOJ said.
The DOJ said Suarez used the money gleaned from the scam to buy a number of luxury cars including a Rolls Royce Ghost, Bentley, Range Rover and Mercedes Benz S63 AMG.
Twitter: @BethJSanborn
