Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Busted! Another Medicare Crook Gets Taken Down

27 year old Alejandro Haber was busy running a Detroit-area health clinic.  But that’s not all he was running.

Haber was also running a multi-million dollar Medicare fraud scheme.

Haber conceived and oversaw his fraud schemes at a clinic he operated called Ritecare, LLC.  Along with his co-conspirators, he obtained patients by paying illegal kickbacks to recruiters and directly to Medicare recipients. 

Haber instructed these patients to feign certain symptoms.  These fake symptoms were used to create false and fraudulent medical records.  The conspirators then billed Medicare for medically unnecessary services such as expensive nerve conduction studies.

From 2007 to 2009, Haber submitted approximately $7.42 million in fraudulent claims through Ritecare to the Medicare program for reimbursement.  Out of this amount, Medicare actually paid $5.33 million to Ritecare.

Haber has since pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.  He was sentenced to serve 40 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.  Additionally, he must pay restitution of $5,333,906 – the amount he fraudulently received.  $99,000 has already been seized from his bank accounts – although this hardly makes a dent in the amount he owes.

Medicare fraud must run in the family – Alejandro’s father was also sentenced in July to 60 months in prison for his role in an $8.5 million Medicare fraud scheme.

To learn more or to read the original press release, please visit:

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