Health care fraud nets man 30 months in prison
He was also ordered to pay $1.2M in restitution
A New Mexico man was recently sentenced in federal court in Albuquerque to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,218,165 in restitution for his role in defrauding an Arizona health care benefit program of almost $2 million.
Cory Werito, 33, of Farmington, also was sentenced to three years of supervised release following his prison term, acting U.S. Attorney James D. Tierney and Special Agent in Charge Waldemar Rodriguez of Homeland Security Investigations in El Paso said in a joint news release.
Werito and his co-defendant, Rosita Toledo, 48, of Kirtland were indicted last summer on nine health care fraud charges, plus an aggravated currency structuring charge against Werito.
The health care fraud charges arose from defendants’ roles in creating and operating a medical transportation company, CW Transport in Farmington, that provided nonemergency medical transportation to Arizona Medicaid recipients. Over the course of two years between 2011 and 2013, CW Transport collected more than $1.9 million in Medicaid reimbursements from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System by submitting more than 18,000 claims, the vast majority of which were wholly or substantially false, authorities said in the new release.
The aggravated currency structuring charge against Werito was tied to financial transactions involving the proceeds of the health care fraud in a manner that avoided the filing of currency transaction reports. CTRs must be filed by financial institutions on transactions involving more than $10,000 during any business day and are used by law enforcement authorities to uncover a range of illegal activities, including money laundering. Werito conducted at least 200 cash withdrawals, each for several thousands of dollars, but less than $10,000, and totaling at least $800,000 to avoid the filing of CTRs, authorities said.
On March 30, Toledo, the company’s claims processor, entered a guilty plea and admitting to her role in the health care fraud scheme. A sentencing date for Toledo has yet to be scheduled.