BOSTON – A Florida woman was sentenced today in connection with a multi-million-dollar Medicare fraud scheme.
Talia Alexandre, 30, of Palm Springs, Fla., was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. to three years of supervised release with the first year spent in home detention. Alexandre was also ordered to pay a fine of $5,000 and restitution in the amount of $1.47 million. On Feb. 24, 2021, Alexandre pleaded guilty to one count of receiving kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program.
Alexandre and co-conspirator Nathan LaParl sold Medicare patients’ personal and medical data to Juan Camilo Perez Buitrago. Alexandre and LaParl worked with foreign call centers to contact Medicare patients to ask if they were interested in durable medical equipment (DME) such as arm, back, knee and shoulder braces “at little to no cost.” The call centers collected demographic and insurance information from Medicare patients, which Alexandre and LaParl sold to Perez Buitrago. Alexandre received more than $1.4 million from Perez Buitrago for the patient data. Perez Buitrago used that patient data to submit more than $109 million in false and fraudulent claims, submitting claims for DME that was not prescribed, not necessary, and, in many instances, never requested or received.
Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell; Johnnie Sharp Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Birmingham Field Division; Phillip M. Coyne, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, Boston Division; and Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elysa Q. Wan of Mendell’s Health Care Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.
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