For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. In May 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the department in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud.
#Any lab test now boca raton trial
Trial Attorneys Jamie de Boer and Dermot Lynch of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case. The FBI’s Miami Field Office and HHS-OIG are investigating the case. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) made the announcement. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Omar Pérez Aybar of the U.S. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division Special Agent in Charge George L. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.Īssistant Attorney General Kenneth A. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 24 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Licata pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit health care fraud. In total, Licata caused his laboratory to submit over $6.9 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for these medically unnecessary tests. Once the COVID-19 pandemic began, Licata exploited patients’ fears of COVID-19 by bundling COVID-19 tests with more expensive, medically unnecessary testing, including respiratory pathogen panel testing and, at times, genetic testing for cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, obesity, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and dementia. Licata and these patient brokers entered into sham agreements to disguise the true purpose of these payments. The defendant exploited the COVID-19 pandemic by bundling COVID-19 testing with other forms of testing that patients did not need, including genetic testing and tests for rare respiratory pathogens.Īccording to court documents, Christopher Licata, 45, of Delray Beach, admitted that, as owner of Boca Toxicology LLC (dba Lab Dynamics), he bribed patient brokers who would refer Medicare beneficiaries and doctors’ orders authorizing medically unnecessary genetic testing to Licata’s laboratory. A Florida man pleaded guilty today in the Southern District of Florida to a $6.9 million conspiracy to defraud Medicare by paying kickbacks and bribes to obtain doctors’ orders for medically unnecessary lab tests that were then billed to Medicare.
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