Detroit-area residents Baskaran Thangarasan, Sandeep Aggarwal and Wayne Smith have pleaded guilty for their roles in connection with several Detroit-area healthcare fraud schemes, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.
Mr. Thangarasan, a licensed physical therapist, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. Mr. Thangarasan admitted that he began working around Sept. 2003 as a contract therapist for co-conspirator Suresh Chand, according to information in the plea documents. Mr. Chand owned and controlled several companies operating in the Detroit area that purported to provide physical and occupational therapy services to Medicare beneficiaries. Mr. Thangarasan admitted that he, the co-conspirator and others created fictitious therapy files appearing to document physical therapy services provided to Medicare beneficiaries, when in fact no such services had been provided.
Mr. Thangarasan admitted that his role in creating the fictitious therapy files was to sign documents and progress notes indicating he had provided physical therapy services to particular Medicare beneficiaries, when in fact he had not. Mr. Thangarasan was paid approximately $50 by co-conspirators per file that he falsified in this manner. Mr. Thangarasan also admitted that in the course of the scheme charged in the indictment, he signed approximately 1,011 fictitious physical therapy files, falsely indicating he had provided physical therapy services to Medicare beneficiaries. He admitted he knew that the files he helped falsify were used to justify fraudulent billings to Medicare.
In addition, Mr. Thangarasan admitted that between Sept. 2003 and May 2006, his co-conspirators submitted claims to the Medicare program totaling approximately $5.055 million for files he falsified. Medicare actually paid approximately $2.325 million on those claims, according to the release.
Mr. Aggarwal pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to launder money in the same case. In his plea, Mr. Aggarwal admitted to assisting Mr. Chand in laundering the proceeds of Mr. Chand's Medicare fraud scheme. Mr. Aggarwal, who admitted working at Mr. Chand's office, acknowledged that his role in the scheme was to set up sham entities at Mr. Chand's direction, with the purpose of using those entities to distribute the proceeds of the fraud to the various co-conspirators. According to plea documents, one such entity was called Global Health Care Management Services. Mr. Aggarwal admitted that Global Health Care Management Services, which he helped to create, provided no health or management services of any type, but existed solely as a mechanism to conceal the location of fraudulently obtained Medicare proceeds. Mr. Aggarwal admitted in his plea that he and Mr. Chand laundered approximately $393,000 through this sham entity.
Mr. Smith pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud in the same case. Mr. Smith was charged with transporting and paying Medicare beneficiaries to attend Sacred Hope Center, a Southfield, Mich.-infusion clinic. According to the indictment, the beneficiaries he paid and transported were paid to sign paperwork indicating that they had received infusions and injections of specialty medications that they did not in fact receive.
Mr. Thangarasan and Mr. Smith face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Mr. Aggarwal faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
Read the DOJ release on the Detroit Medicare fraud scheme guilty pleas.