Whistleblower News From The Inside — November 16, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

Months in Prison for Role in $1.5 Million Medicare Part D Fraud Scheme – Tamara Esponda of Miami had pleaded guilty to health care fraud, admitting that a pharmacy she owned, Biomax Pharmacy, had submitted fraudulent claims for prescription drugs that were not prescribed by physicians, not medically necessary and not provided to Medicare beneficiaries. Esponda further admitted that in perpetrating this fraud she and her accomplices used the beneficiaries’ and doctors’ Medicare identification numbers without their consent. DOJ

Man Sentenced To 57 Months In Prison For Using Fraudulent Invoices To Steal More Than $600,000 From Elementary Schools – Defendant Robert S. Armstrong admitted that from July 2014 through September 2014, he sent more than 73,000 fraudulent invoices to schools throughout the United States seeking payment for non-existent workbooks. DOJ

S.F. museum whistle-blower bounced from her job – Michele Gutierrez, chief financial officer of the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum, has reportedly been terminated, following local reports that Gutierrez had filed a complaint that the museum board chair and chief executive had improperly ordered that $450,000 in museum money be paid to an ailing staffer. SF Chronicle

U.S. Virgin Islands Governor Terminates Whistleblowing Attorney – Attorney LaVerne Mills-Williams had filed suit alleging she was retaliated against for refusing to allow the governor and his chief of staff to modify records before they were released in response to public records request. VI Daily News

Trial Underway in Qui Tam Case against IU Health – Opening arguments began in a case brought by doctor alleging that IU Health and Healthnet were failing to provide critical care by medical doctors for low-income mothers and their babies, despite billing Medicaid for such services, which were, in fact, provided by midwives. WTHR