Calvin Osei, 34, of Sayreville, pleaded guilty on Friday, March 9 to third-degree Medicaid fraud before Superior Court Judge Martin Cronin in Essex County. The charge was contained in an Oct. 26, 2009 state grand jury indictment.

Judge Cronin scheduled the sentencing for May 4. Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend Osei be sentenced to 60 days county jail and a three-year term of probation. Osei will also be ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution and fines.

In pleading guilty, Osei, who is a licensed pharmacist at Campus Pharmacy in Newark, admitted that between May 11, 2006 and Oct. 15, 2008 he knowingly submitted fraudulent claims to the Medicaid program for medications that were not dispensed.

Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Ronald Chillemi noted that this case was part of Operation PharmScam, which revealed that six pharmacies and two medical clinics in Jersey City and Newark participated in a multi-million dollar conspiracy to defraud Medicaid. During the course of the investigation, 14 individuals, including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and the owner of a medical clinic were charged. Under this scheme, the pharmacies were billing Medicaid for high priced AIDS/HIV and specialty drugs that were never ordered from the wholesalers or dispensed to the beneficiaries. Osei is the last of the defendants to plead guilty in this case.

Deputy Attorneys General David Noble and Dolores Blackburn and Detective Kevin Gannon
were assigned to the investigation. Noble and Blackburn represented the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the guilty plea hearing.

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