Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Feds seize 250,000 pills worth $16 million


Thieves bilked Medicaid for half billion

New York – Federal prosecutors seized a quarter million pills worth $16 million in a massive Medicaid fraud that cost taxpayers an estimated half billion dollars.

According to FBI Special Agent in Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk, the scheme affected people treated for such deadly and chronic diseases as HIV, as well as asthma and schizophrenia.

Thieves sold the expensive medications on-line after buying them on street corners from impoverished Medicaid clients in ghetto neighborhoods of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn at cut rate prices.

Agents charged 48 persons in the scam, which penetrated the nation in states as far away as Florida and Texas, as well as in New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

Though most of the medications were outdated and probably ineffective because of having been improperly stored in lockers and automobile trunks, federal authorities reported no injuries resulted.

“The scheme was theft, pure and simple, from a program funded by the taxpayers,” said Agent Fedarcyk.

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