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TRENTON – Acting Attorney
General Paula T. Dow announced that a New
York man was sentenced to state prison today
for billing the Medicaid program for services
he did not perform.
According to Acting Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor Riza Dagli, Mark Darby, 41,
of the Bronx, N.Y., was sentenced to three
years in state prison and ordered to pay $7,254
in fines and restitution by Superior Court
Judge Michael A. Petrolle in Essex County.
Darby was also barred from participating in
the Medicaid program for a period of five
years. Darby was sentenced pursuant to his
guilty plea to Medicaid fraud, a charge contained
in a Jan. 27, 2009 state grand jury indictment.
In pleading guilty on Sept.
16, Darby, who was a behavioral services counselor
for Innovative Specialists Inspirational Solutions
(ISIS), admitted that between Jan. 12 and
Aug. 6, 2007, he submitted timesheets to his
employer containing false information. In
submitting the false timesheets, Darby claimed
that he provided $4,173 worth of hourly behavioral
assistance services to four Medicaid recipients
when, in fact, he had not provided those services.
ISIS suspected the fraud and referred the
matter to the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
for further investigation. ISIS fired Darby
as a result of an internal investigation.
Detective Jessica Nelan and Deputy Attorney
General Cynthia Vazquez were assigned to the
investigation. Vazquez represented the Office
of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the sentencing.
The Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor was
established by the Automobile Insurance Cost
Reduction Act of 1998. The office is the centralized
state agency that investigates and prosecutes
both civil and criminal insurance fraud, as
well as Medicaid fraud.
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