Federal jury finds Stamford man guilty of health care fraud

STAMFORD — A 40year-old Stamford man was found guilty Friday of defrauding health care programs, resulted in more than $1.5 million in losses.

A federal jury in New Haven found Kwasi Gyambibi guilty of two counts of health care fraud related to fraudulent prescriptions for compound drugs that were submitted to Advantage Pharmacy in March 2015, and found him not guilty of seven counts of health care fraud. The jury could not reach a verdict on the other 10 counts in the indictment, according to a press release from the office of U.S. Attorney John H. Durham.

Gyambibi’s sentencing is set for May 2. He faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.

Gyambibi was a sales representative for Advantage Pharmacy, a compounding pharmacy located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Advantage created compound prescription drugs specifically tailored for individual patients.

One tube of a compound drug cream prepared and dispensed by Advantage Pharmacy typically cost health care benefit programs thousands of dollars, and some individual tubes of cream cost more than $11,000 for a one-month supply, according to the press release.

A grand jury indictment alleged that in 2014 and 2015, Gyambibi and his wife, Kakra Gyambibi, engaged in a scheme to defraud the State of Connecticut Pharmacy Benefit Plan, TRICARE and other health care programs by submitting prescriptions for compound pharmacy medications prepared and dispensed by Advantage Pharmacy.

Although the prescriptions sent to Advantage Pharmacy contained Kakra Gyambibi’s signature, Kakra Gyambibi did not treat, examine, or even meet with the patients for whom the prescriptions were written.

Based on these false claims, the health care programs paid Advantage Pharmacy for the compound prescription drugs.

Advantage Pharmacy, in turn, paid commissions of between 15 percent to 35 percent to sales representatives, including Kwasi Gyambibi’s close cousin.

It is alleged that Kwasi and Kakra Gyambibi also induced the victim health care programs to pay Advantage Pharmacy more than $292,000 for their own compound prescription drugs.

Kwasi Gyambibi worked at UConn-Stamford, and Kakra Gyambibi was a physician who worked as a hospitalist at Stamford Hospital.

On Jan. 18, Kakra Gyambibi pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. She also awaits sentencing.