Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Scott J. Lampert, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“HHS-OIG”) New York Regional Office announced today the arrest of MATTHEW WITKOWSKI on charges of conspiracy and health care fraud.
As alleged in a Complaint unsealed today in federal court, and at a presentment held this morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jared M. Strauss of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, WITKOWSKI, ran a company dedicated to illegally buying written orders for durable medical equipment (“DME”) such as leg, arm, and back braces, and then selling those written orders to DME supply companies, which in turn used those orders to file fraudulent Medicare claims.
These fraudulent claims are estimated to have resulted in payments to WITKOWSKI’s coconspirators of at least $10 million. WITKOWSKI was arrested yesterday evening at the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, after he flew in from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Witkowski remains in custody, with a detention hearing scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on July 27, 2022, before the Magistrate Judge is Alicia O. Valle in Fort Lauderdale.
Source: Man Charged With Multi-Million Dollar Medicare Fraud / STL News
these fraud schemes illustrate what is broken with the system. It is unlikely that ‘prison terms’ will go full time and fines will ever be collected.
Crime pays.