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TRENTON - Attorney General
Paula T. Dow and Criminal Justice Director
Stephen J. Taylor announced that the owner
of a Newark pharmacy pleaded guilty today
in connection with an investigation into
pharmacy owners and employees who bought
completed prescription forms for HIV/AIDS
drugs from indigent patients so Medicaid
could be billed for drugs that were never
actually dispensed.
According to Acting Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor Riza Dagli, Nwala Gabriel,
49, of Piscataway, pleaded guilty to a charge
of third-degree Medicaid fraud before Superior
Court Judge Michael A. Petrolle in Essex
County. The charge was contained in a state
grand jury indictment obtained by the Office
of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor’s
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit on Oct. 26,
2009.
In pleading guilty, Gabriel,
the owner of Harrison Pharmacy on Martin
Luther King Boulevard in Newark, admitted
that he fraudulently billed Medicaid for
prescription drugs that were never dispensed
to the Medicaid beneficiaries.
The state will recommend
that Gabriel be sentenced to three years
of probation. In addition, the state reserves
the right to recommend that he be sentenced
to up to 364 days in the county jail as
a condition of the term of probation. Gabriel
must pay restitution and a penalty totaling
$178,272 and will be excluded from the Medicaid
program for three years. He must surrender
his license to practice pharmacy for a minimum
period of three years or until he successfully
completes all terms of his criminal sentence.
Judge Petrolle scheduled
sentencing for Gabriel for April 5. Deputy
Attorneys General Sherry Wilson and Debra
Conrad took the guilty plea for the Office
of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor.
Gabriel was charged as a
result of Operation PharmScam, an ongoing
investigation targeting Medicaid fraud that
began in 2008 and has been conducted by
OIFP’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit,
the Jersey City Police Department and the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s
Office of Criminal Investigations.
On
Oct. 26, 2009, a total of 10 defendants,
including Gabriel, were indicted as a result
of the investigation into pharmacies that
were buying prescriptions from patients
and billing the Medicaid Program for medicines
that were never dispensed. A full list of
defendants charged is in the Oct.
26, 2009 press release.
On Jan. 19, two technicians
at Pharmacy of America who were indicted,
Jannah Rasheedah Amatul Muid and Alicia
Stephens, pleaded guilty to third-degree
Medicaid fraud.
The investigation has been
conducted for the Medicaid Fraud Control
Unit by Detective Danielle Han, Detective
Joseph Jaruszewski, Detective Jacqueline
Latty, Detective Kevin Gannon, Sgt. Fred
Weidman and Sgt. James Wrightson. Deputy
Attorneys General Sherry Wilson and Debra
Conrad are leading the prosecutions, with
assistance from Deputy Attorney General
Erik Daab, who is Deputy Chief of the Medicaid
Fraud Control Unit, and Deputy Attorneys
General William Hoyman, Cynthia Vazquez,
Linda Rinaldi and Carol Stanton Meier.
The Medicaid program, which
is funded by the state and federal governments,
provides health care services and prescription
drugs to persons who may not otherwise be
able to afford such services and medicines.
The State of New Jersey administers the
Medicaid program through the Division of
Medical Assistance and Health Services and
through the Office of the Insurance Fraud
Prosecutor’s Medicaid Fraud Control
Unit, which investigates both criminal and
civil Medicaid fraud and abuse in that program.
Anyone with information
about fraud or abuse involving the Medicaid
program or Medicaid providers is urged to
call the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit toll
free at 1-877-55-FRAUD or report it online
at www.NJInsuranceFraud.org.
All information received will remain confidential.
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