Criminal Proceedings

June 3, 2021

A man in Kansas, Christopher Matthew Meredith, has been ordered to spend 14 years in prison and pay over $6.8 million in restitution for defrauding investors to his company, Strategic Pharma, Inc. (SPI).  In addition to failing to disclose that he was under investigation for an investment fraud scheme in Florida, Meredith had falsely represented to investors that SPI had entered into lucrative agreements, including with the Department of Veterans Affairs, that would result in substantial revenue for SPI.  USAO WDTX

May 28, 2021

Erik Santos of Georgia was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison following his guilty plea on healthcare fraud charges.  Santos conspired with Florida compounding pharmacy Patient Care America and others to recruit Tricare beneficiaries to fill prescriptions for expensive, supposedly tailor-made, compounded medications that consisted of little more than common pain or scar creams, but came with price tags as high as $10,000-$15,000 per month.  The beneficiaries did not need the medications, which had little to no therapeutic value, and Santos secured the prescriptions by paying doctors, who had not actually seen the beneficiaries, to approve pre-printed prescriptions for large amounts of these medications.  Santos’s fraudulent referrals caused an actual loss to the Tricare program of approximately $12 million.  PCA pharmacy paid Santos over $7 million in prescription referral kickbacks.  In addition to the prison sentence, the Court imposed restitution in the amount of $11.8 million and entered a forfeiture judgement of approximately $7.6 million.  USAO SD FL

May 27, 2021

Bank Julius Baier & Co. Ltd. (BJB), a Swiss bank with international operations, will pay $79 million in penalties and enter into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement to resolve a criminal investigation into the bank’s involvement in a money laundering conspiracy that fueled an international soccer bribery scheme.  BJB admitted that it conspired to launder over $36 million in bribes through the United States to soccer officials with FIFA and other federations, in furtherance of a scheme in which sports marketing companies bribed soccer officials in exchange for broadcasting rights to soccer matches.  BJB’s Anti-Money Laundering controls failed to detect or prevent the money laundering, despite knowing that certain client accounts were associated with international soccer, which was generally understood to involve high-corruption risks.  A BJB executive directed that the opening of these accounts be fast-tracked in the hope that the clients would provide lucrative business.  DOJ

May 26, 2021

Nurse practitioner Trivikram Reddy was sentenced to 20 years in prison following his guilty plea on healthcare conspiracy and wire fraud charges.  Reddy stole the identities of six physicians to submit fraudulent bills to Medicare and private insurers including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, Humana, and Cigna. When federal agents began their investigation, Reddy took steps to manufacture medical records to support his fraudulently-submitted bills, and diverted millions of dollars in proceeds of the fraud to himself.  In addition to the prison sentence, Reddy was ordered to pay more than $52 million in restitution.  USAO ND TX

May 26, 2021

A licensed insurance broker, Tarek Abou-Katwa, was sentenced to 70 months in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield of more than $3.8 million.  According to evidence presented at trial, Mr. Abou-Katwa created fictitious employees and altered years of birth of actual employees to lower the average age of insured groups and fraudulently obtain lower insurance premiums.  He then inflated the rates charged to clients and pocketed the difference, which was in excess of $3.6 million.  When audited, he created false sense reports and other documents.  Mr. Abou-Katwa will also pay $3.8 million in restitution and forfeit $8.4 million.  DOJ

May 19, 2021

Latisha Harron of North Carolina has been sentenced to over 14 years in prison and ordered to pay over $13 million in restitution after pleading guilty to charges of defrauding the North Carolina Medicaid Program, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering.  Together with husband Timothy Harron, the defendant scoured obituaries for recently deceased Medicaid recipients and billed Medicaid for up to a year of home health services that were allegedly provided to the deceased by her company, Agape Healthcare Services, Inc.  By concealing the fact that both Harrons were previously convicted felons, the defendant was able to obtain millions in reimbursements, which she then laundered into expenses such as business properties, a private jet, clothing and jewelry, and gym equipment.  NC AG; Subsequent proceeding

May 18, 2021

Javaid Perwaiz, an ob/gyn who practiced in Hampton Roads, Virginia, was sentenced to 59 years in prison after a jury convicted him of charges related to his performance of hysterectomies, sterilizations, and other medically unnecessary surgeries and procedures on patients without their informed consent - in many cases by falsely telling them they had cancer or needed the procedure to avoid cancer.  In addition, Perwaiz induced labor in patients early so that he could bill for the deliveries, sometimes falsifying records to support the induction.  USAO ED VA