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TRENTON
Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Division
of Criminal Justice Director Stephen J.
Taylor announced that a Hoboken pharmacist
pleaded guilty today for his role in a scheme
to defraud the Medicaid program.
According
to Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Riza
Dagli, Babak Bamdad, 42, of Hoboken, pleaded
guilty to a criminal accusation charging
him with third-degree Medicaid fraud before
Superior Court Judge Kevin G. Callahan in
Hudson County.
Judge Callahan scheduled sentencing for
July 28. Third-degree crimes carry a maximum
sentence of five years in state prison and
a criminal fine of up to $10,000. Deputy
Attorney General Debra A. Conrad represented
the state at the guilty plea hearing.
In
pleading guilty, Bamdad, a pharmacist in
charge at Tucker Drugs, 1000 Washington
St., Hoboken, admitted that between Jan.
1 and Oct. 9, 2009, he submitted claims
to the Medicaid program for prescription
drugs allegedly dispensed to Medicaid beneficiaries,
even though the prescription drugs were
never dispensed. The claims were subsequently
paid out by the Medicaid program.
The
investigation by the Medicaid Fraud Control
Unit of the Office of the Insurance Fraud
Prosecutor revealed that Bamdad accepted
fictitious prescriptions for Prevacid, Advair
and Singulair from undercover Detectives
as payment for narcotic prescription drugs.
Bamdad then billed and was paid by Medicaid
for the Prevacid, Advair and Singulair even
though the prescriptions were not filled
or dispensed.
Today’s
plea resulted from an ongoing investigation
by the Office of the Insurance Fraud
Prosecutor’s Medicaid Fraud Control
Unit and the Jersey City Police Department’s
Special
Investigation Unit.
Since
October 2009, more than 32 people, including
doctors and pharmacists, have been arrested
in the joint investigation, which uncovered
a major criminal narcotics network based
in Hudson County that distributed thousands
of black market prescription pain pills
such as OxyContin and Percocet. The network
was obtaining fraudulent narcotics prescriptions
and filling them at various pharmacies.
At the same time, Medicaid was being billed
for phony doctor visits and prescription
medicines that were never dispensed.
The
network allegedly distributed the prescription
pain pills throughout Hudson County and
other parts of the state, including Bergen,
Ocean, Morris and Monmouth counties. A single
30 milligram OxyContin pill, known as a
“blue,” typically sells for
$10 to $20 on the street, while a10 milligram
Percocet pill sells for $5 to $8.
Detective
Kevin Gannon, Sgt. Frederick Weidman and
Deputy Attorneys General Conrad and Cynthia
Vasquez were assigned to the investigation.
They
were assisted by the following members of
the Jersey City Police Department’s
Special Investigation Unit under the supervision
of Chief Thomas Comey: Capt. Gary Lallo,
Sgt. Anthony Musante, Sgt. Wally Wolf, Detective
Wael Shahid, Detective Jeff Guilfoyle, Detective
Vincent Disbrow, Detective Hector Marrero,
Police Officer Alex Torres, Police Officer
Chris Dolan, and Police Officer Erik Infantes.
Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Dagli
noted that some important cases have started
with anonymous tips. People who are concerned
about insurance cheating and have information
about a fraud can report it anonymously
by calling the toll-free hotline 1-877-55-FRAUD
or visiting the Web site www.njinsurancefraud.org.
State regulations permit an award to be
paid to an eligible person who provides
information that leads to an arrest, prosecution
and conviction for insurance fraud.
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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