DOJ: Florida man sentenced in $134M fraud scheme

A federal judge sentenced a 48-year-old Florida man to six years in prison for his role in a $134 million fraud scheme.

Michael Nolan’s prison sentence will be followed by three years probation for defrauding federal health benefit programs, according to the Department of Justice.

Court documents said Nolan and another man, Richard Epstein from Colorado, ran a telemarketing agency called REMN Management LLC from October 2016 through April 2019.

They used the agency to target elderly victims to generate thousands of physician orders for medical equipment, the DOJ reported.

Both men also operated a telemedicine company called Comprehensive

Telecare, LLC, where they illegally bribed physicians to sign orders regardless of medical necessity.

Nolan and Epstein would then use other co-conspirators to support false and fraudulent claims to Medicare and the Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to the DOJ.

They filed at least $134 million in medical claims resulting in approximately $29 million in payments.

Both men pleaded guilty on July 31, 2020.

As part of their sentences, Nolan received a monetary judgment to pay $2.1 million, while Epstein received one for $3 million.

Additionally, according to the DOJ, they and other coconspirators must pay more than $29 million in restitution.

“These significant sentences and restitution of over $29 million to our nation’s critical healthcare system — Medicare — are a result of law enforcement’s unified efforts to hold the perpetrators of one of the largest healthcare fraud schemes in history accountable for their crimes,” said Special Agent in Charge Omar Pérez Aybar of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.