Business Owners Sentenced in DME Bribery Scheme

ATLANTA—Brett Weiner and Valerie Desalvo have been sentenced on conspiracy charges for their role in buying and selling fraudulent doctors’ orders used to obtain more than $1.5 million in fraudulent payments from Medicare.

“Thieves take advantage of telemedicine and use it as a platform to orchestrate their criminal schemes,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. “Our office is committed to prosecuting those who exploit our most vulnerable citizens and bilk the health care system in the name of personal greed.”

According to Buchanan, the charges and other information presented in court state that Brett Weiner and Valerie Desalvo owned and operated Laboratory Marketing Services, LLC (LMS), a business in Boca Raton, Florida. LMS was in the business of, among other things, receiving kickback payments in exchange for patient “leads,” consisting of billable Medicare beneficiaries. Weiner and Desalvo received bribes from DME companies such as Medihealth Medical Solutions, LLC, located in Amory, Mississippi, and Liberty Medical DME, LLC, in Atlanta, Georgia, in exchange for the leads, which included, among other information, each Medicare beneficiary’s name, Medicare number, diagnoses, pain level and primary care physician.

Through LMS, Weiner and Desalvo also bought and sold signed physicians’ orders from Nagaindra Srivastav and his company B2B Apps Solutions, LLC, in Tampa, Florida, which they sold to DME companies. A substantial portion of the doctors’ orders that Weiner and Desalvo purchased from Srivastav and B2B contained signatures or purported approvals of physicians or other health care providers whose names and professional identifying information were used without their true authorization and prior knowledge.

In total, Weiner and Desalvo, through LMS, caused the submission of false and fraudulent claims to Medicare in the approximate amount of more than $1.5 million, which generated approximately $715,000 in payment, for medical braces, including back, knee and ankle braces, that were procured through the payment of illegal kickbacks and bribes and ineligible for Medicare reimbursement.

Brett Weiner, 61, of Boca Raton, Florida, and Valerie Desalvo, 58, of Boca Raton Florida, were each sentenced to three years, one month in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Weiner and Desalvo were also ordered to pay $715,435.03 in restitution.

The following defendants were previously sentenced as part of the same conspiracy:

Nagaindra Srivastav, 59, of Tampa, Florida, was sentenced to serve nine years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $48,150,692.49 in restitution; and Brian Tisdale, 46, of Amory, Mississippi, was sentenced to serve three years, six months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $4,675,093.80 in restitution.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General.

“Fraudulent schemes, such as what Weiner and DeSalvo participated in, corrupt medical decision making, drive up the cost of health care, and hurt every taxpayer in this country,” said Keri Farley, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta. “Hopefully this lengthy sentence will send the message that the FBI makes it a priority to end people from abusing government-funded programs like Medicaid.”

“Health care providers who cause the submission of Medicare claims for medically unnecessary equipment pose a significant risk to these programs and the patients who rely on them,” said Special Agent in Charge Tamala E. Miles of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “HHS-OIG works diligently with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable individuals who, to satisfy their own greed, exploit federal health care programs.”