Mother and daughter accused of defrauding Florida pharmacy of $12 million

A mother and her daughter have been charged with defrauding the Public Health System (Medicare) of more than $12 million through false claims through a pharmacy they own in South Florida, the federal prosecutor’s office for the Southern District said Friday. of this state.

Mirosis Gonzalez, 58, and his daughter Perioska Sosa, 32, were indicted by a grand jury for “bribing” Medicare beneficiaries in exchange for referrals to their pharmacy, then embezzling millions of dollars from the federal health care program. .

Gonzalez and Sosa owned an Aviva Care pharmacy in Sunrise, Broward County, north of Miami, and from 2016 to 2020 “paid bribes to marketing and telemedicine companies in exchange for referrals of Medicare beneficiaries” to the pharmacy, as well as medical referrals, according to the indictment.

“Bribed companies” sent Aviva expensive medical equipment and prescriptions through Medicare “regardless of medical need or eligibility for reimbursement.”

During these years, the defendants negotiated bribery agreements with the companies and created false contracts intended to disguise the bribes as payments for marketing and other services, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

According to the indictment, the mother and daughter submitted more than $12 million in false claims to Medicare, with Aviva receiving more than $8.4 million.

The mother and daughter were charged with “health care fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to pay health care kickbacks.”