Florida Man Receives 55-Month Sentence for DME Medicare Fraud

MIAMI (October 13, 2022)—A Unites States’ federal district judge has sentenced 56-year-old Ariel Madero Paez to 55 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for submitting more than $2.2 million in fraudulent billings to Medicare.

From November 2021 through May 2022, Madero owned Always Medical Supply (Always), located in Stuart, Florida. Always, a Florida corporation, purported to provide durable medical equipment (DME) to eligible Medicare beneficiaries. In a five-month period in 2022, Always submitted approximately $2.2 million in fraudulent health care claims to Medicare for DME that the corporation never provided and that Medicare beneficiaries never requested. As a result, Medicare paid more than $1.4 million to Always. After Madero’s arrest on May 6, 2022, at Miami International Airport, bank accounts for Always and Madero had a sum of more than $500,000 derived from or traceable to health care fraud.

In addition to sentencing Madero to prison and supervised release terms, U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks ordered him to pay restitution to Medicare in the amount of nearly $1.5 million and entered a forfeiture money judgment also in the amount of nearly $1.5 million. This is in addition to the forfeiture of the contents of Madero’s two bank accounts. 

Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Omar Pérez Aybar, Special Agent in Charge, Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.  

HHS-OIG Miami investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana M. Acosta prosecuted it.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Laserna is handling asset forfeiture. 

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at flsd.uscourts.gov or at pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-14029-Middlebrooks.