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TRENTON
– Attorney General Zulima V. Farber
and Gregory A. Paw, Director of the Division
of Criminal Justice, announced that the
manager of an Essex County pharmacy and
a pharmacy technician have been sentenced
for Medicaid fraud and related crimes.
The
defendants were convicted of billing Medicaid
for prescription medicines that were never
dispensed and giving illegal kickbacks to
Medicaid beneficiaries, particularly HIV/AIDS
patients, to obtain their prescriptions.
The pharmacy where they worked, Ojah Pharmacy,
located at 42-44 Sussex Ave., East Orange,
also was found guilty of Medicaid and health
care claims fraud and faces fines, required
restitution and exclusion from future participation
in any federal or state health care program.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, former pharmacy manager Verona Boodram,
28, of Bloomfield, was sentenced by Essex
County Superior Court Judge Michael L. Ravin
to serve five years in state prison and
pay $21,500 in restitution to the Medicaid
program. Former pharmacy technician Alpha
Bangoura, 31, of Orange, was sentenced by
Judge Ravin to serve six and one-half years
in state prison. The defendants were sentenced
on their conviction on March 21, 2006 of
health care claims fraud and Medicaid fraud,
following a five-week jury trial.
“These
defendants stole more than $40,000 from
the Medicaid program,” said Criminal
Justice Director Paw. “But the human
cost was even more significant, because
HIV/AIDS patients were being induced to
sell their prescriptions for cash without
receiving the medicines they needed.”
The
Essex County jury found that from June 2002
through October 2004, Ojah Pharmacy, through
Boodram and Bangoura, overbilled Medicaid
more than $40,000 for prescription medications
that were not dispensed. The jury also convicted
Bangoura and Boodram on charges that they
enticed Medicaid patients, specifically
HIV/AIDS patients, to turn over their prescriptions
without receiving their medications by offering
$10 worth of store merchandise and an additional
$10 to $100 in cash per prescription depending
on the value of the medication.
Criminal
Justice Director Paw noted that prescription
fraud and the “buy back” of
prescriptions from Medicaid patients is
becoming more common. Pharmacies benefit
from the scam by billing Medicaid the cost
of expensive drugs without actually dispensing
the medications, so they can, in effect,
sell the same drugs more than once.
Deputy
Attorney General Riza Dagli, State Investigator
Melissa Calkin, State Investigator Jon Powers
and Auditor Cleair Budhu were assigned to
the investigation. Dagli and Deputy Attorney
General Mark Ondris represented the Office
of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor in court.
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