Southern District of New York | Florida Business enterprise Owner Sentenced To 65 Months In Prison For Defrauding Medicare Of $7 Million

Damian Williams, the United States Lawyer for the Southern District of New York, announced that CHRISTOPHER MARGAIT was sentenced now to 65 months in prison for conspiracy to commit overall health care fraud by fraudulently trafficking in orders for tough health-related gear such as back, knee, and wrist braces.  MARGAIT previously pled guilty to the charge and was sentenced now ahead of United States District Judge Denise Cote.

U.S. Lawyer Damian Williams stated: “Christopher Margait faced justice now for illegally promoting orders for tough health-related gear and as a result defrauding Medicare of at least $7 million.  Such fraud schemes do true harm to Medicare—a crucial, taxpayer-funded plan that gives very affordable overall health care to persons more than 65 or with disabilities.”

According to statements produced in court and publicly filed documents in this case:

From at least August 2019 by way of Could 2021, MARGAIT and his co-defendant, Matthew Taylor Witkowski, engaged in a scheme to defraud Medicare by illegally getting and promoting fraudulent orders for tough health-related gear (“DME”) paid for by Medicare.  Using a small business that he jointly owned and operated with Witkowski, and a contact center that Witkowski operated in the Dominican Republic, MARGAIT illegally generated and bought fraudulent orders for DME and then sold these fraudulent orders to pharmacies and DME suppliers, such as suppliers in New York City.  These pharmacies and DME suppliers then employed these fraudulent orders as the basis for at least $7 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare.  Many of these fraudulent orders employed names and individual overall health info of actual Medicare beneficiaries, devoid of the beneficiaries’ authorization or prior expertise.  Many of these fraudulent orders also contained skilled info of medical doctors and other overall health-care providers enrolled in the Medicare plan, as effectively as the purported electronic signatures of these providers, which have been falsified and designed devoid of the authorization or expertise of these providers.

Through the course of the scheme, MARGAIT and Witkowski received a lot more than $three.eight million in illegal kickbacks from DME suppliers, who produced these payments to Accurate Prospects Advertising and marketing, Inc., a firm controlled by MARGAIT and Witkowski.

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MARGAIT, 45, of West Palm Beach, Florida, pled guilty on June two, 2022, to a single count of conspiracy to commit overall health care fraud.  In addition, MARGAIT was sentenced to 3 years of supervised release and ordered to spend forfeiture of $three,853,442 and restitution of $7,000,000 to the Medicare plan.

Witkowski, 38, a U.S. citizen who resided in the Dominican Republic considering that he was in college, was sentenced on April 20, 2023 to 60 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release.  He was also ordered to spend forfeiture of $four,065,995 and restitution of $eight,131,990 to the Medicare plan.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative perform of the Workplace of the Inspector Basic of the U.S. Division of Wellness and Human Solutions.

This case is getting handled by the Office’s Complicated Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant U.S. Lawyer David Raymond Lewis is in charge of the prosecution.