Spend me your ears
Officers, bizman in $1.6M ‘scam’
More than 500 state workers — including troopers and corrections officers — received “free” custommade earphones for music and gaming that ended up costing the state insurance fund $1.65 million, authorities said on Monday.
In a scam that officials said ran for more than two years, a Syracuse businessman was accused of providing the expensive devices for entertainment and then billing the state insurance plan as if they were medically prescribed hearing aids.
Joshua Miller, owner of Syracuse Hearing Aid Centers, was indicted on grandlarceny and healthcarefraud charges, state Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott and Onondaga District Attorney William Fitzpatrick announced.
As part of the scheme, Miller allegedly paid a state corrections officer about $70,000 in referral fees to solicit state employees with promises of free Tunz Custom Audio Monitor earphones, which sell for $200 to $300.
Miller was accused of billing the state employees’ insurance plan — The Empire Plan — $3,000 for each set from May 2012 to December 2014, filing paperwork as if they were “medically necessary” hearing aids, authorities said.
“The business owners’ scheme lured hundreds of state employees into his criminal enterprise, which was breathtaking in its scope, duration and pretense,” Leahy Scott said.
Further arrests are expected in the probe.
Leahy Scott strongly suggested that some state workers were accomplices in the scam, while others must have known the arrangement was too good to be true.
“I will continue this investigation into the theft of state funds, follow the evidence wherever it leads, and pursue and hold accountable anyone who uses their state position or state resources in furtherance of a criminal scheme,” she said.
Fitzpatrick said the scheme resulted in “substantial fraud and theft perpetrated on the taxpaying citizens of New York state.”
Miller sold to correction officers from eight upstate prisons, as well as the Willard Drug Treatment Campus and hospital staff at SUNY Upstate Medical University, officials said.
More than 90 percent of the bills submitted to the Empire Plan, via United HealthCare, were found to be fraudulent, investigators said.
Miller was arraigned Monday before Onondaga County Judge Joseph Farley and sent to the county jail in lieu of $50,000 cash or a $100,000 bond. He claims he is innocent.