Press Release
Pharmacy Owners Charged with $26 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York
An indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Taesung “Terry” Kim and Dacheng “Bruce” Lu with perpetrating a health care fraud scheme to submit false and fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid for medically unnecessary prescriptions and over-the-counter products that were not actually dispensed, to pay illegal kickbacks and bribes, and to launder the proceeds of their scheme. The defendants were arrested this morning and are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Cheryl L. Pollak.
Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Kenneth A. Polite, Jr., Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and Naomi Gruchacz, Special Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), announced the arrests and charges.
As set forth in court filings, the defendants owned and operated four pharmacies: 888 Pharmacy Inc. and Huikang Pharmacy Inc., located in Brooklyn, and Elmcare Pharmacy Inc. and NY Elm Pharmacy Inc., located in Queens. Between January 2015 and December 2022, Kim and Lu allegedly conspired with others to submit false and fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid for the dispensing of pharmaceutical and over-the-counter products that were medically unnecessary, procured by the payment of kickbacks and bribes, or not provided. Further, Kim and Lu allegedly conspired with others who paid illegal kickbacks and bribes, in the form of cash and supermarket gift certificates, to Medicare beneficiaries and Medicaid recipients who filled their prescriptions at their pharmacies. Kim and Lu also conspired with others to pay and paid illegal kickbacks and bribes, in the form of rent and office staff, to the doctors who prescribed the medically unnecessary medications filled at their pharmacies.
Kim and Lu allegedly laundered the proceeds of their fraud through shell entities to generate cash that they could disperse as profits to themselves and the pharmacies’ other owners, and to pay pharmacy customers as kickbacks. As part of the scheme, Kim and Lu’s pharmacies submitted approximately $26 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid.
The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendants are presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty. The defendants each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud, 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering, and five years in prison for conspiracy to pay illegal health care kickbacks and bribes.
Trial Attorney Patrick J. Campbell and Acting Assistant Chief Miriam Glaser Dauermann of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.
The Defendants:
TAESUNG KIM (also known as “Terry”)
Age: 58
Great Neck, New York
DACHENG LU (also known as “Bruce”)
Age: 44
Flushing, New York
E.D.N.Y. Docket Number: 23-CR-191 (ARR)
Contact
John Marzulli
Danielle Blustein Hass
U.S. Attorney's Office
(718) 254-6323
Updated May 2, 2023
Topic
Health Care Fraud
Component