Florida: Medicare Scammer Gets 20 Years

Just days after his partners in crime were arrested on Medicare fraud charges, Ihosvany Marquez was recorded on an undercover tape saying he had no qualms about stealing from the federal program for the elderly and disabled.

"I don't care because it is the government," Marquez told a federal informant, pitching him on a plot to export a multmillion-dollar scam from Miami-Dade to Detroit.

"Medicare needs to have fraud because it's more money they get every year," he said in the May 27, 2009, recording, which was read Thursday by a prosecutor in Miami federal court.

Marquez, a former Miami Springs High pitching ace who almost played in the Major Leagues, was sentenced Thursday to 19 ½ years in prison for healthcare fraud. He schemed to bilk $48.8 million from Medicare by submitting false claims for purported HIV therapy.

Marquez's seven clinics in Miami-Dade and Orlando were paid $21.6 million, which he must repay the taxpayer-funded Medicare program.

Full Article and Source:
Convicted Miami Dade Medicare Scammer Imprisoned for Nearly 20 Years