TRENTON
- Criminal Justice Director Vaughn L.
McKoy announced that a Monmouth County
pharmacist was sentenced for paying kickbacks
to Medicaid recipients to solicit business.
According to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
Greta Gooden Brown, Abdul Hameed Anayoor,
56, of Starlight Road, Howell, Monmouth
County, was ordered by Monmouth County
Superior Court Judge Bette E. Urmacher
to serve two years probation and pay a
$2,000 fine. In addition, Anayoor was
ordered to surrender his pharmacist license.
Anayoor was sentenced pursuant to June
3 guilty plea to a criminal Accusation
filed by the Division of Criminal Justice
- Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor,
charging him Medicaid Fraud.
At his guilty plea hearing before Judge
Uhrmacher, Anayoor, a registered pharmacist
at GLV Parke Warner Pharmacy, located
in Neptune, Monmouth County, admitted
that in March, 2003, he offered to pay
a kickback of $50 to all new Medicaid
recipients that had their prescription
drugs filled at GLV Parke Warner Pharmacy.
An undercover investigation by the Division
of Criminal Justice - Office of Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor determined that Anayoor
also offered to pay a $20 kickback for
refilled prescriptions at GLV Parke Warner
Pharmacy.
On March 23, Anayoor’s co-defendant,
Rammohan Pabbathi, 58, Amy Court, Howell,
Monmouth County, owner of GLV Parke Warner
Pharmacy, pleaded guilty to a criminal
Accusation charging him with Health Care
Claims Fraud. An investigation by the
Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor determined
that Pabbathi billed Medicaid for filling
prescriptions that the pharmacy did not
actually dispense. The investigation revealed
that Anayoor paid the incentives for recipients
to use GLV Parke Warner Pharmacy so that
Pabbathi could further the fraud. Pabbathi
was sentenced on July 8 by Judge Uhrmacher
to three years in state prison and ordered
to pay $450,000 in restitution and fines
to the Medicaid Program.
State Investigators Jacqueline Latty and
Robert McGrath, and Deputy Attorney General
Erik W. Daab were assigned to the investigation
into this case. DAG Daab represented the
Division of Criminal Justice - Office
of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at Anayoor’s
sentencing.
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