Miami jury convicts last two defendants in $200 million Medicare scam
Posted on Monday, 07.28.14
Miami jury convicts last two defendants in $200 million Medicare scam
A Miami jury’s verdict ends a long-running probe of a $200 million Medicare ripoff that sent about 40 people to prison.
By Jay Weaver
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com
The nation’s biggest mental health scam against Medicare — totaling $200 million in false billings — ended with a quick bang Monday when the last two defendants in a long-running probe were found guilty in Miami federal court.
The healthcare fraud convictions of Roger Bergman, 65, a physician’s assistant, and Rodolfo Santaya, 55, a patient recruiter, capped the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation that sent about 40 South Florida defendants to prison — including Lawrence Duran, the former co-owner of the Miami-based American Therapeutic Corp.
Prosecutor Nicholas Surmacz said the two defendants, convicted after less than three hours of jury deliberations, participated in a “massive conspiracy to rip off Medicare.”
U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez ordered that Bergman and Santaya, both of Miami-Dade County, be placed in custody at the Miami Federal Detention Center as they await what are likely to be lengthy prison terms.
Federal agents raided American Therapeutic’s seven clinics from South Florida to Orlando in the fall of 2010, leading to Duran’s guilty plea that sent him to prison for 50 years — the longest sentence ever for a Medicare fraud offender. Duran and his girlfriend, Marinella Valera, the co-owner and therapist sentenced to 35 years, lived in a Miami bayfront condo and tooled around in a Maserati when their business was shuttered after pocketing $87 million in Medicare proceeds.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/28/4259997/miami-jury-convicts-last-two-defendants.html#storylink=cpy
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