Government Enforcement Actions

September 29, 2015

Juan Carlos Delgado and Nereyda Infante, who owned and operated several Orlando-based health care clinics under variations of the name Prestige Medical, were sentenced to five years in prison and to pay $1,520,850 in restitution and forfeit $1,520,850 for their role in a $2.4 million health care fraud scheme.  According to admissions made in connection with their guilty pleas, between February 2012 and September 2014, the defendants fraudulently billed Medicare on behalf of the Prestige clinics for services never provided and for medications not prescribed or administered.  In particular, Delgado and Infante admitted to billing Medicare for pentostatin, an expensive anticancer chemotherapeutic medication used to treat Leukemia, despite never administering the drug.  DOJ

September 29, 2015

Delaware-based St. Francis Hospital agreed to pay roughly $4 million to the US and $200,000 to the State of Delaware to resolve charges it violated the False Claims Act by improperly billing Medicare and Medicaid for patients admitted into its inpatient rehabilitation unit in Wilmington, Delaware between 2007 and 2010, when admission was not medically necessary and/or the services provided did not fully qualify for reimbursement.  The settlement agreement also resolves separate allegations that St. Francis employed an individual who was excluded from participating in any Federal health care programs.  DOJ (DE)

September 29, 2015

One current and three former US Army soldiers were sentenced for their involvement in a bribery scheme in Afghanistan that resulted in the theft of fuel valued at more than $10 million.  Jeffery B. Edmondson was the senior enlisted member of the unit who supervised all his co-conspirators and was sentenced to eight years in prison.  Christopher Ciampa was sentenced to 10 years in prison.  Enmanual Lugo was sentenced to four years in prison.  And Geoffrey Montague was a senior enlisted member of the unit who reported to Edmondson and was sentenced to five years in prison.  In connection with their guilty pleas, the defendants admitted to submitting fake Transportation Movement Requests (TMRs) for thousands of gallons of fuel that were neither necessary nor used by military units.  The defendants admitted that, in return for cash bribe payments, they awarded all the TMRs to the same Afghan trucking company, which used the fake TMRs to download fuel from depots on Kandahar Air Field and then sold the fuel on the black market.  DOJ

September 29, 2015

Guardian Industries Corp. agreed to settle alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at Guardian’s flat glass manufacturing facilities throughout the US.  Under the proposed settlement, Guardian will invest more than $70 million to control hazardous emissions from all its flat glass manufacturing facilities and fund an environmental mitigation project valued at $150,000 to reduce particulate matter pollution in the San Joaquin Valley in California.  It also agreed to pay a civil penalty of $312,000.  DOJ

September 29, 2015

Wyeth Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of the Pfizer Corporation, agreed to perform nearly $194 million worth of cleanup work at the American Cyanamid Superfund Site in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey.  The cleanup work the company has agreed to perform includes work to address six disposal areas at the site where chemicals were manufactured for nearly 100 years.  In addition, the company will pay $1 million for EPA’s past costs of overseeing cleanup work at the site.  The American Cyanamid Superfund Site has a history of industrial pollution dating back to 1915.  DOJ

September 28, 2015

L-3 Communications Corporation and its affiliated entities Vertex Aerospace LLC and L-3 Communications Integrated Systems LP agreed to pay $4.63 million to resolve allegations they violated the False Claims Act by inflating labor hours for time spent by independent contractors at the military’s Continental US Replacement Centers (CRCs) in Fort Benning, Georgia and Fort Bliss, Texas.  According to the government, L-3 knowingly overcharged the government for time their independent contractors spent at the CRCs by billing for each individual not based on the actual time that individual spent at the CRC, but based instead on the earliest arrival or latest departure time of any other individual who also processed through the center that same day.  The allegations first arose in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by former L-3 independent contractor Robert A. Martin under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act.  Mr. Martin will receive a whistleblower award of $798,675.  Whistleblower Insider

September 28, 2015

American Access Care Holdings, LLC agreed to pay $3,594,791 to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by improperly billing Medicare and Medicaid for multiple percutaneous transluminal angioplasties performed during the same patient encounter and improperly submitting claims to Medicare and Medicaid for procedures performed during follow-up visits that were not medically necessary.  The conduct addressed by the settlement occurred prior to AAC’s merger with Fresenius Vascular Care, Inc. in October 2011. DOJ (CT)

September 24, 2015

Hector Hernandez, owner and operator of Miami mortgage lender Great Country Mortgage Bankers was sentenced today to serve 135 months in prison and pay $64,508,141 in restitution and forfeit $8,000,000 in illicit profits for his role in orchestrating a $64 million mortgage fraud scheme.  Also sentenced was real estate developer Aleida Fontao (41 months in prison, $7,131,952 in restitution and $400,000 in forfeiture); and underwriter Olga Hernandez (51 months in prison and $24,512,755 in restitution).  Hector Hernandez admitted that his company employed loan officers, loan processors and underwriters, including Olga Hernandez and Fontao, whom he knew approved and submitted false and fraudulent Federal Housing Administration mortgage loan applications and accompanying documents to HUD on behalf of unqualified borrowers.  These documents included false pay stubs, false verification of employment forms, and fictitious letters from the borrowers.  DOJ

September 24, 2015

Elizabeth Kressin agreed to pay $62,349 to resolve allegations she violated the False Claims Act by improperly billing the Medicaid system for medically unnecessary chiropractic procedures and for the treatment of conditions for which payment is not allowed, including bed wetting, colic and ear infections.  DOJ (Iowa)

September 22, 2015

Douglas G. Williams, a former Oklahoma City law enforcement officer and the owner of Polygraph.com, was sentenced to two years in prison for training customers to lie and conceal crimes and other misconduct during polygraph examinations.  According to admissions made in connection with his plea, Williams trained people how to conceal misconduct and other disqualifying information when submitting to polygraph examinations in connection with federal employment suitability assessments, background investigations, internal agency investigations and other proceedings.  DOJ