Posted on 01/10/2010 12:06:52 PM PST by Libloather
Miami-Dade clinic owner held on Medicare fraud charges
Ihosvany Marquez made a fortune off Medicare, prosecutors said, using millions in illegal profits to pay for exotic cars, jewels and horses.
BY JAY WEAVER
Posted on Tuesday, 01.05.10
The Miami-Dade man hasn't held a steady job in more than a decade. Yet Ihosvany Marquez spent millions of dollars on a fleet of Lamborghinis, Bentleys and other luxury cars, along with thoroughbred horses and diamond jewelry, authorities say.
All with your tax dollars, they say.
Marquez, 38, was detained without bond Monday by a federal magistrate judge on charges of submitting $55 million in false claims to Medicare for bogus HIV and cancer services at his seven clinics in Miami-Dade and Orlando. The taxpayer-funded healthcare program paid Marquez and other partners in the alleged conspiracy about $22 million from 2005 to 2007, according to an indictment.
``This is an absolutely massive Medicare fraud scheme, even by Miami standards,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Stumphauzer said, pushing for no bond, noting that a suspect in a related case fled the country last year to avoid trial.
Marquez's lawyer, Michael Walsh, who entered a not guilty plea for his client, challenged the government's claim that his client would skip town. ``You don't think he's going to use one of these horses to flee?'' Walsh questioned an FBI agent on the witness stand.
``I don't think that's going to happen,'' FBI agent Avatar LeFevre said.
Magistrate Judge Barry Garber was not amused by Walsh's quip, saying that Marquez's expensive possessions, unemployment history and criminal charges ``would represent a substantial flight risk.''
Among Marquez's alleged purchases for himself, his wife and other family members: A Lamborghini Gallardo, a Lamborghini Murcielago, a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, two Bentley Continental GTs, two Mercedes Benz CL63s and at least six Mercedes Benz S550s -- all worth $2.7 million.
``He even bought a car for his personal trainer who helped him lose weight,'' said Stumphauzer, who is handling the case with prosecutor Daniel Bernstein.
Marquez also purchased more than a half-million dollars' worth of diamond jewelry, Rolex watches and other baubles from a Miami store, Stumphauzer said. In addition, Marquez bought more than $1 million in thoroughbred horses, he said.
Marquez is accused of operating six fraudulent Miami-Dade clinics -- including one called Tender Loving Care -- with partner Michel De Jesus Huarte.
Huarte was indicted separately in June on charges of submitting more than $50 million in bogus claims to Medicare for purported infusion therapy to treat patients with cancer, AIDS and varicose veins.
The partners are accused of laundering the Medicare payments through shell companies such as Babalu Telemarketing and Madreagua Construction -- named after Santeria saints.
Huarte, 38, has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced later this month.
The partners' infusion treatments, purportedly administered intravenously, were neither prescribed by doctors nor provided to patients, Stumphauzer said.
The partners recruited Cuban immigrants to pose as the owners of their clinics, ``with the understanding that the `straw' owners would flee to Cuba to avoid law enforcement detection or capture,'' according to the indictment filed against Huarte.
Among those said to have posed as a straw owner: Madelin Barbara Machado, 36, who ran Zigma Medical in Miami-Dade. In a separate 2008 indictment, she was charged with fraudulently billing Medicare more than $9 million for unnecessary HIV therapy and collecting $4.5 million. But Machado fled and is believed to be in Cuba, according to the FBI.
Among other straw-owner recruits: Juan Carralero, 56, and Orlin Tamayo Quinonez, 35. Carralero is suspected of having fled to Cuba and Tamayo to Ecuador.
This piece is worse than Madoff.
60 minutes had a piece about Medicare fraud, focussing on the Miami area. A brand new, storefront, empty building operator will set up, bill Medicare for 1M plus in less than a month, and close shop. And brand new vendor with high ticked items or old vendor doing ten times as much billing, doesn’t trigger any red flags in the system. People on Medicare going over their statements report calling their local office and saying, “Look, I don’t use a motorized wheelchair, I don’t have a prosthetic arm; I don’t do dialysis at home. Why does it say I got these things?” And Medicare won’t respond because they have about two fraud investigators in Florida.
An immigrant friend of mine told me her godfather was being investigated for about 12M in false billing for non-existant therapy. People from corrupt cultures come here and take us for suckers; it’s our fault if we leave our gold and silver out on the front yard is the way they figure, and we pretty much do that. Haven’t wised up yet.
This seems like a month/weekly story where in Miami Dade some Cuban America or other Latino is engaged in Medicare fraud and they all flee the country. Big numbers too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUY_01n1XWQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwU7xc38-cc
Parts one and two of the 60 Minutes piece.
So who in the Federal government was allowing this corruption to happen? Who will be losing their job and going to jail? Just wondering.
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