FBI, IRS Follow the Money Trail in Brooklyn Raid

NEW YORK — As members of the HME community focused on a
Washington congressional
hearing on Medicare fraud Tuesday, agents from the FBI, IRS and
Immigration and Customs Enforcement searched the offices of 12 DME
companies in South Brooklyn, charging 17 individuals with health
care fraud and money laundering involving schemes against private
insurance companies.

According to four separate indictments announced June 15 by
United States Attorney Loretta E. Lynch, the defendants allegedly
filed fraudulent claims with private insurance companies with
no-fault insurance plans for DME “at prices well in excess of the
price paid by the defendants, as well as for equipment that was
never obtained.”

The indictments allege it was also part of the defendants’
schemes “to engage in financial transactions to conceal the
identity, source and destination of the fraudulent proceeds by
‘laundering’ them through checks they issued to the same wholesale
companies. The checks were then negotiated at check cashing stores
and the resulting cash was delivered back to the defendants,” a
Department of Justice release said.

According to Special Agent Richard Kolko of the FBI, the
companies involved were related to Bener Wholesale. Assets from
bank accounts maintained by the defendants’ companies have been
seized.

In addition to the federal agencies involved, the New York City
Police Department and the New York State Insurance Department
assisted in the case.

“IRS Criminal Investigation investigates health care fraud
perpetrated against the federal and state governments, as well as
private insurance companies,” IRS Special Agent-in-Charge Charles
R. Pine said in the release. “We investigate money laundering when
either illegally obtained funds from health care fraud are used to
purchase assets or when the perpetrators of the schemes devise
elaborate methods to conceal their fraudulent proceeds …

“Typical health care fraud investigations are lengthy, labor
intensive, and involve complex issues. To assist in combating
health care fraud, IRS CI participates with multiple agencies by
documenting that the perpetrators of these schemes financially
benefitted from their fraudulent activities. IRS CI will continue
to participate in all types of health care fraud investigations. If
there is a money trail, we will follow it.”

If convicted, each of the defendants faces up to 20 years in
prison.