MIAMI MOTHER AND SON SENTENCED FOR CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT HEALTH CARE FRAUD AND CONSPIRACY TO PAY HEALTH CARE KICKBACKS
Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, and Christopher B. Dennis, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Office of Investigations, announced yesterday’s sentencing of Angela Bustillo, 57, and Alfredo Morrera, 30, both of Miami, Florida. U.S. District Judge Cecilia M Altonaga sentenced Bustillo to 71 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Morrera was sentenced to 57 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Both defendants were ordered to pay $1,566,288 in restitution.
According to the factual proffer read in court during the change of plea hearing, the defendants owned and operated Angie’s Home Health Care Inc. (Angie’s), a Miami-Dade based Home Health Agency that purportedly provided skilled nursing services to homebound Medicare beneficiaries. According to the evidence, Angie’s provided services to patients who did not need them, and then billed Medicare for these unnecessary services. To execute the scheme, Morrera instructed patients to provide false information to qualify the patients for home health services when, in fact, they did not. In addition, Angie’s paid kickbacks to nurses and recruiters who, in turn, paid Medicare beneficiaries to get the beneficiaries to agree to be treated at Angie’s. In total, Morrera and Bustillo caused the submission of approximately $2,295,139 in false claims to Medicare, of which Medicare paid $1,566, 288.
Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI and HHS-OIG. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Bernstein.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
