Twin brothers who owned a pharmacy in West Orange, NJ have been sentenced to serve three-and-a-half years in federal prison for stealing a minimum of $1.5 million from customers, insurance companies, and Medicaid.
The 70-year-old defendants, who operated the pharmacy in West Orange but lived in Florham Park, NJ, had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. The sentences were handed down in the U.S. District Court in Newark, NJ.
In addition to prison sentences, the defendants agreed to pay $1.5 million – the amount stolen – in restitution.
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said the defendants conspired with a third person to defraud various entities from their base of operations in West Orange.
Case documents and court statements indicated that one of their scams involved under-filling customers’ prescriptions so that they could overbill both insurance companies and Medicaid. Another scam involved substituting generic drugs for brand-name drugs and then billing the insurance companies and Medicaid for the full amount of the brand-name drugs.
For more information, see the NJ.com article entitled “Brothers Who Owned West Orange Pharmacy Sentenced for Fraud.“