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most of the medications were outdated and probably ineffective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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