Eight people have been arrested for their participation in a Manhattan-based drug ring that used Medicaid funds to pay for the operation. A ninth accomplice remains at large.
Police say the drug ring allegedly distributed thousands of oxycodone pills obtained through Medicaid fraud.
Diana Williamson, Lenny Hernandez, Miguel Angel Hernandez, Franmi Saeta, Ivette Arroyo, Reynoldo Colon, Antonio Martinez and Carl Guilford were arrested Monday and are expected to appear in Manhattan federal court. Junior Jaquez has not been taken into custody.
According to police, between September 2009 and August 2010, Williamson, a Manhattan-based primary care physician, wrote oxycodone prescriptions to patients who didn't need for the medication. Police said Lenny Hernandez recruited patients to obtain oxycodone prescriptions, helped patients fill the prescriptions and arranged to resell the oxycodone to third parties.
Three others – Miguel Angel Hernandez, Saeta and Arroyo – assisted Lenny Hernandez in obtaining and distributing oxycodone pills, police said. Police said Martinez and Guilford obtained oxycodone prescriptions from Williamson, used their government-provided health benefits to fill their prescriptions and sold the pills back to Lenny Hernandez and Williamson.
According to records from the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General, $997,128 of $4,392,832 in total Medicaid drug expenses for medications prescribed by Williamson was attributable to Oxycontin prescriptions.
Analysis of patient prescription data and surveillance during the course of the investigation established that approximately 11,000 oxycodone pills were obtained through healthcare fraud and distributed by members of the conspiracy.
The defendants are each charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and maximum fine of $1,000,000. Williamson, Lenny Hernandez, Martinez and Guilford are also charged with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.
"Diana Williamson allegedly exploited her medical license by engaging in a scheme to prescribe profits for herself and her coconspirators," said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. "In so doing, she betrayed the practice of medicine and, moreover, cheated an already-strapped Medicaid system out of almost a million dollars."