Month: November 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

CONTACT: Barbara Burns
PHONE: (716) 843-5817
FAX #: (716) 551-3051

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that William M. Putnam, 53, of Rochester, NY, was charged by criminal complaint with transmitting in interstate commerce communications containing threats to injure another person. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
 
Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles E. Moynihan, who is handling the case, stated that according to the complaint, on November 21, 2022, a board member of the Islamic Center of Rochester (Victim 1) received a voicemail message, which had been left on November 15, 2022, at approximately 1:23 p.m. Left by a male individual, the message stated: “I’m coming to your office with a few friends, we all have shotguns. We are walking into your front door, and we are going to shoot everybody that’s on the phone in the (expletive) head. How do you like that? That’s what’s going coming your way very soon, you scumbag foreigner (expletives).” A subsequent investigation traced the message to Putnam, who has 12 previous criminal convictions, including two felony convictions and one violent felony conviction. In November 2021, Putnam was the subject of a Mental Health Transport for threatening self-harm.

The complaint further states that Victim 1 recognized of photo of Putnam as an individual who had previously visited the Islamic Center and who Victim 1 had interacted with on multiple occasions since 2021. As a result, Putnam was taken into custody by the Rochester Police Department under New York Mental Hygiene Law and transported to Rochester General Hospital for observation.

Putnam made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marian W. Payson and was held pending a detention hearing on November 29, 2022.

The complaint is the result of an investigation by the Rochester Police department, under the direction of Chief David Smith, the Brighton police Department, under the direction of Chief David Catholdi, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Michael Stansbury.

The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.      
           
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Source: United States Department of Justice News

          LOS ANGELES – A licensed Orange County pharmacist has been found guilty by a jury of nearly two dozen federal criminal charges for her role in a health care fraud scheme in which more than 1,000 bogus prescriptions for compounded medications were filled, costing Tricare, the U.S. military’s health care plan, more than $11 million in losses, the Justice Department announced today.

          Sandy Mai Trang Nguyen, 42, of Irvine, was found guilty Tuesday afternoon of 21 counts of health care fraud, and one count of obstruction of a federal audit.

          Compounded drugs are tailor-made products doctors may prescribe when the Food and Drug Administration-approved alternative does not meet the health needs of a patient.

          According to evidence presented at her five-day trial, Nguyen was the pharmacist-in-charge of the now-defunct Irvine Wellness Pharmacy in Irvine. From late 2014 to May 2015, Nguyen and others under her supervision filled approximately 1,150 compounded prescriptions for pain, scarring and migraines that Tricare reimbursed for tens of thousands of dollars per prescription. Nearly all of the prescriptions were sent to the pharmacy by so-called marketers who were paid kickbacks of upwards of 50% of the Tricare reimbursements.

          The beneficiaries were solicited to provide their Tricare insurance information for medications they did not seek out or need, and most were never examined by a physician. The prescriptions were electronically sent from marketers or telemedicine businesses and submitted by the pharmacy for reimbursement even though Tricare rules excluded reimbursements for claims based on telemedicine visits and would not, in any event, have been authorized had Tricare known the prescriptions originated based upon the payment of kickbacks.

          Nguyen was aware that the prescriptions were purportedly written by physicians in states other than where the beneficiaries lived, multiple members of the same families received the same medications, and the same prescriptions were written for members of different patient populations, including a 13-year-old boy in Chicago who got the same prescription as an 86-year-old woman in Orange County who happened to be Nguyen’s grandmother.

          The pharmacy invoiced the beneficiaries to pay hundreds of dollars in required co-payments, but the beneficiaries stated that they knew nothing about co-payments and understood that the medications were fully covered by Tricare, according to trial testimony. The total co-payments due during the scheme exceeded $16,000, but the pharmacy never collected them.

          Nguyen also obstructed a federal audit by providing bogus, cut-and-pasted prescriptions to cover-up Tricare’s effort to validate millions of dollars paid for the same prescriptions.

          During Nguyen’s tenure as pharmacist-in-charge, Tricare paid $11,098,756 on the fraudulently submitted claims.

          United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II scheduled an April 3, 2023 sentencing hearing, at which time Nguyen will face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for each health care fraud count, and five years in federal prison for the audit obstruction count.

          The Department of Defense, Office of Inspector General; the Defense Criminal investigative Service; the FBI; the Amtrak Office of Inspector General; IRS Criminal Investigation; the United States Department of Labor – Employee Benefits Security Administration; the California Department of Insurance; and the Office of Personnel Management, Office of Inspector General investigated this matter.

          Assistant United States Attorneys Mark R. Aveis and Ali Moghaddas of the Major Frauds Section are prosecuting this case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

DENVER – The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announces James Ernesto Martinez, age 33, of Denver, has been sentenced to 46 months in prison for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

According to the plea agreement, on July 22, 2021, law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at the defendant’s Denver home. That search warrant authorized the seizure of, among other things, firearms. After agents knocked and announced their presence, Martinez went back inside for approximately ten minutes. During that time, agents could see Martinez moving quickly through the home. When Martinez finally surrendered, he was the only adult in the home. On the floor of Martinez’s bedroom, agents observed a trail of pills that led from the dresser to the bathroom. In the bathroom, around the toilet, agents located crushed pills they believed to be a controlled substance, as well as ripped up plastic baggies. Based on what agents initially saw, they obtained a second search warrant for drugs and drug paraphernalia. They located 11 fentanyl pills, .981 grams of methamphetamine, plastic baggies, and two digital scales. In a shoe box concealed in the attic that could only be accessed from the defendant’s bedroom, agents located two 9mm handguns and a .22 caliber handgun. Martinez had previously been convicted of a felony and knew he was prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition.

Judge William J. Martinez sentenced the defendant on November 23, 2022.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The prosecution was handled by the Violent Crime and Immigration Enforcement Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

CASE NUMBER: 21-cr-00263

Source: United States Department of Justice News

MINNEAPOLIS – A Kansas man was sentenced to 77 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for an early morning armed robbery of a Menards store in West St. Paul, announced United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger.

According to court documents, on September 27, 2021, Cornelius Graham, 61, of Kansas City, Kansas, went to the Menards store in West St. Paul and hid inside the store until it closed. Early on the morning of September 28, 2021, Graham confronted the store manager as he was opening the store for the day. Graham brandished a firearm and took cash from the store manager.

Graham was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court before Senior Judge Ann D. Montgomery. On June 1, 2022, Graham pleaded guilty to one count of interference with commerce by robbery. Because Graham was on supervised release for separate robbery convictions in the District of Kansas, Graham received an additional sentence of 23 months, increasing his total sentence to 100 months in prison.

This case was the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI and the West St. Paul Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David P. Steinkamp prosecuted the case.