The owner of a Miami area pharmacy was sentenced to 48 months in prison Thursday in connection to fraudulent Medicare claims, the Department of Justice announced.
The man, 47-year-old Evelio Fernandez Penaranda of Miami, pleaded guilty for his role in $1.8 million in fraudulent claims for prescription drugs at his pharmacy in South Florida.
Penaranda, the owner of Naranja Pharmacy Inc., admitted in his guilty plea that his pharmacy issued perceptions that were not signed by doctors, that were not medically necessary and did not go to actual Medicare recipients.
Additionally, Penaranda was charged with transferring payments he received from Medicare to himself and his fellow accomplices. Peneranda’s sentence comes after Penaranda plead guilty to one county of health care fraud in July after an investigation by the FBI and the Miami regional Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.
In addition to his four-year prison sentence, Chief U.S. District Court Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida ordered Penaranda to pay $1,876,241 in restitution.
According to the Department of Justice, 2,300 people have been charged with Medicare Fraud since 2007.