Feds charge 16 in massive $175M prescription cream fraud based in South Florida
The suspects include about a dozen residents of
Court records suggest they are all cooperating and are expected to surrender in court in the next week or so.
In a related criminal case, one of convicted Ponzi schemer
Morales, 51, had worked "as an enforcer in order to intimidate the employees and business associates" at one of the Boca companies since
The criminal conspiracy regarding the creams went on for more than two years and involved lying to and defrauding numerous health care insurance providers to get them to pay the trumped-up costs of the ingredients for such medications, prosecutors said.
The defendants prepared and sold prescription medications in bulk quantities that they claimed were specially prescribed and tailor-made compound creams for specific individual patient needs, according to the criminal charges.
In some cases, the co-conspirators received as much as
Prosecutors charged the alleged ringleader of the insurance fraud,
The fraud was operated from a number of companies with premises in
The defendants concealed that they were paying illegal kickbacks to corrupt doctors and medical professionals to issue prescriptions for what are called compounded prescription medications, prosecutors wrote in the criminal complaint filed Thursday.
The fraud targeted private insurance companies and Tricare, a healthcare program of the
Morales had previously worked as a bodyguard for Rothstein and was featured in news stories when he was accused of intimidating the former lawyer's perceived foes at a
According to the charges against Morales, he was recorded on audio and video talking about how he had destroyed records that he was told agents wanted to seize as part of their insurance fraud investigation. Agents had searched the company and several other premises in late
Morales took a couple of boxes of records that agents placed in another office and talked about shredding or burning them. Agents later intercepted a call where they said they heard Morales "confirmed the destruction of the records, implying that he had burned them."
Morales, who is barred from having a gun because of a prior felony conviction in
"When they come through my door they're gonna get the [expletive] scare of their life. ... They gonna [expletive] drop to the [expletive] ground. ... They will be on the [expletive] news, that's for sure," Morales said, according to a transcript.
He also was recorded talking about firearms he had hidden at his home.
In July, the cooperating witness bought a .38-caliber Ruger handgun from Morales that neither of them was legally allowed to possess, agents wrote in court records.
Morales, who is linked to addresses in
The prescription fraud also involved telemarketing call centers and mass marketing techniques to lie to and solicit potential patients, prosecutors said. Physicians also were illegally provided with pre-printed prescription pads to make it easier to prepare the false prescriptions, according to court documents.
The suspects approached failing pharmacies to get involved in the fraud, authorities said.
Facing a money-laundering conspiracy charge are:
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Charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud are:
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If convicted, Carroll faces a maximum of 23 years in federal prison and a fine of up to
The investigation was handled by the
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