Pharmacist Sentenced For $5 Million Health And Tax Fraud

Andrew Barrett, a New York pharmacist who operated pharmacies in Bronx, Queens, and Rockland counties, was sentenced Sept. 9 to 43 months’ imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised release connected with a $5 million health-care fraud.

The 57-year-old New City resident, who prosecutors said billed the government for prescriptions he never filled and used the money for business and personal expenses, had pleaded guilty May 25 to committing a health-care fraud scheme and filing false tax returns.

“Instead of using his pharmacist license to provide valid relief to those in need, Andrew Barrett used it as a license to steal from publicly-funded health care programs and then lied about it on his tax returns,” United States Attorney Loretta Lynch said when he was indicted March 20, 2015.

As part of the sentence, Barrett was ordered to forfeit $2.7 million in criminal proceeds, pay $2.7 million in restitution to Medicare and Medicaid, and pay $736,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

Barrett, a licensed pharmacist, operated drug stores in the Bronx, Rockland, and Queens.

From his Queens pharmacy, prosecutors said, Barrett billed Medicare and Medicaid more than $5 million for prescription medications that he never dispensed to patients between January 2011 and December 2012.

Then, he used more than $4 million of that money to buy drugs for his pharmacies in the Bronx and Rockland counties.

Prosecutors also accused him of siphoning off—for personal expenses—more than $2.5 million from the Bronx and Rockland pharmacy accounts while falsely claiming those funds as business expenses on his personal and corporate tax returns.

He also falsely claimed over $2 million in personal expenses as business expenses on his tax returns. Through this scheme, he caused a tax loss of $736,192.80.

The sentence was announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Capers expressed his grateful appreciation to the agencies that led the government’s investigation: the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office; the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, New York Office (HHS-OIG); and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, New York (IRS-CI). Mr. Capers also thanked the New York Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG) for its cooperation and assistance in the case.

The sentencing proceeding was held before United States District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Business and Securities Fraud Section. Assistant United States Attorneys William P. Campos and Erin E. Argo are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Assistant United States Attorney Karin Orenstein of the Office’s Civil Division, which is responsible for the forfeiture of assets.

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