Two brothers that were operating multiple addiction treatment centers in South Florida were sentenced to prison this Friday for making a $112 million fraud under an addiction treatment scheme. This scheme basically included providing kickbacks to several patients via patient recruiters as well as they used to receive kickbacks from a larger number of testing laboratories.
The Justice Department recently stated that these substance abuse treatment facility owners took advantage of several vulnerable patients to serve their greed. They also added that these sentences represent the unwavering commitment of the Justice Department to protect patients seeking treatments as well as to prosecute fraudulent treatment facilities for substance abuse cases with their Sober Homes Initiative.
Based on the evidence and reports presented to the court, Daniel Markovich (33) and Jonathan Markovich (37) from Bal Harbour were sentenced to 97 months and 188 months in prison, respectively in the Southern District of Florida. The documents procured by the attorneys at the time of trial show that the defendants presented an unlawful bill of $112 million for various types of addiction treatment services that were either not provided or were not medically required. It helped them to procedure illegal kickbacks at their two different treatment facilities including WAR Network LLC and Second Change Detox LLC. The first one is a related outpatient treatment program whereas the second one is an inpatient residential and detox facility.
These defendants got in touch with patients with the help of some patient recruiters that offered several illegal kickbacks to different patients; it even included cash payments, illegal drugs, and airline tickets. The involved defendants shuffled a large number of patients between WAR and Compass Detox during various cycles of admissions and even re-admissions so that they can generate fraudulent bills of a larger amount. The patient recruiters even suggested some illegal drugs to the patients even before their admission to Compass Detox so that they can be easily admitted for detox.
Moreover, they even recommended them the most expensive type of treatment at defendant facilities. Other than this, they generated bills for therapy sessions but not all of them were conducted or attended by the patients. Even they also ordered several unnecessary urinalysis tests, generated bills, and got paid for them. Surprisingly, the Compass Detox facilities provided some Comfort Drinks to the patients that helped to sedate them so that they can return to the facility again. Many patients were also given other types of controlled substances to ensure that they stay docile and keep on paying the facility in the long run.
The experts in the criminal investigation division recently stated that it is not acceptable to exploit and manipulate patients that are already in such a vulnerable state. Therefore, both the defendants were convicted by the court for making such fraud with the patients. Jonathan Markovich was also convicted of a money laundering case and to conduct several other unlawful activities.
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