New York City Pharmacy Owner Sentenced To 2½ Years In Prison For Committing Multimillion-Dollar Health Care Fraud

 

 Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that SAJID JAVED, an owner and operator of a number of pharmacies in the New York City area, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for using his pharmacies to submit more than $7.1 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid.  JAVED previously pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud before U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick, who imposed today’s sentence.

Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said:  “Sajid Javed fraudulently billed Medicare and Medicaid more than $7 million for drugs that were never actually dispensed, inducing others to forego their prescription medications in return for kickbacks.  Javed contributed to the multibillion-dollar theft of federally funded public health care subsidies.”

According to the Complaint, the Superseding Information to which JAVED pled guilty, court filings, and statements made in public court proceedings:

While owning and operating a number of pharmacies located in Brooklyn and Queens, JAVED conducted a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid programs by seeking reimbursement for prescription drugs that were not distributed to customers.  Specifically, from January 2013 through December 2014, JAVED obtained more than $7.1 million in reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid for prescription drugs that his pharmacies never actually dispensed to customers.  JAVED defrauded Medicare and Medicaid into providing him with these reimbursements by obtaining prescriptions from other individuals, who were willing to forego delivery of the medications in exchange for a share of the reimbursed proceeds, in the form of kickbacks.  JAVED offered to pay, and did actually pay, kickbacks in furtherance of this scheme.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Broderick sentenced JAVED, 49, of Fresh Meadows, Queens, to three years of supervised release and ordered JAVED to make court-ordered restitution in the amount of $6,040,451.32 to Medicare and $1,150,562.16 to Medicaid, and imposed forfeiture in the amount of $7,191,013.48.

Ms. Strauss praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General.