TRENTON
- Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Acting
Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Ronald Chillemi
announced that two pharmacists have pleaded
guilty for their roles in a scheme in which
pharmacy owners and employees allegedly 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 Chillemi, XXXXXXXXXX, of Upper Saddle River,
and Omar Mohammad, 34, of Upper Saddle River,
pleaded guilty yesterday (Nov. 14) to third-degree
Medicaid fraud before Superior Court Judge
Martin Cronin in Essex County. The charges
were contained in an October 26, 2009 state
grand jury indictment.
Judge
Cronin scheduled the sentencing for January
20, 2012. Under the plea agreement, the
State will recommend XXXXXbe sentenced
to 90 days county jail as a condition of
probation and Mohammad be sentenced to a
non-custodial probationary term.
In
pleading guilty, XXXXX who was a licensed
pharmacist at Orange Drugs in Newark, admitted
that between May 11, 2006 and October 15,
2008 he offered bribes to Medicaid beneficiaries
to induce them to bring their prescriptions
to Orange Drugs. Mohammad, also a licensed
pharmacist at Orange Drugs, pleaded guilty
to knowingly submitting claims to the Medicaid
program for drugs that were not dispensed.
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. The investigation involved
more than 25 individuals, including pharmacists,
doctors, physician assistants, pharmacy
technicians and Medicaid beneficiaries.
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.
Detective
Kevin Gannon, former Deputy Attorney General
Sherry Wilson, Deputy Attorneys General
Debra Conrad, Cynthia Vazquez, David Noble
and Dolores Blackburn were assigned to the
investigation. Noble and Blackburn represented
the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
at the guilty plea hearing.