Article - July 1, 2008 - Florida Trend

Fraud Inc.

Crime is big business in Florida, generating more money than manufacturing. Medicare fraud alone adds an estimated $12 billion to the state's economy.

By David Villano

Like many hardworking immigrants, 39-year-old Eduardo Moreno arrived in south Florida with pennies in his pocket and dreams of striking it rich. By late 2006, the Cuban-born Moreno was running a fast-growing cluster of medical supply companies and clinics and living the good life, with a spacious lake-view home in Miami and a fleet of cars that included a $200,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom.

Moreno and his fortune are both long gone. Investigators say Moreno’s businesses amounted mostly to an elaborate scheme to divert millions of dollars in fraudulent Medicare claims into his private bank account. According to a federal indictment, Moreno’s companies — Bren a Medical Supply, Faster Medical Supply and RTC of Miami — routinely recruited patients for the sole purpose of billing the government for drug infusion therapies and for medical equipment such as electric wheelchairs, scooters and therapeutic mattresses.

In many cases, officials say, the drugs were unnecessary or never administered and the equipment — including air mattresses costing $868 apiece — was never delivered. More than $7 million in Medicare claims remains under scrutiny.

Moreno, arrested a year ago on multiple fraud charges, isn’t around to speak in his own defense. He skipped out on a $450,000 bond and remains a fugitive.

Full story

 Create your own educational wiki!Help Add to Del.ici.ous Add to Digg Add to Reddit Add to fUrl Add to SpurlPublic, Gold wiki Privacy Policy RSS