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| Updated: 2/03/2012 10:10 pm |
Published: 2/03/2012 10:08 pm |
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A federal judge in central Arkansas on Friday sentenced the owner of a former Little Rock medical equipment business to 27 months in prison for health care fraud.
Archibong Edem-Effiong, 58, stood next to his attorney in a Little Rock courtroom as U.S. District Judge Brian Miller told him he would also have to pay nearly $1 million back to Medicare in addition to the prison term.
Edem-Effiong pleaded guilty last year to health care fraud in exchange for prosecutors dropping additional charges against him and two other co-defendants.
As part of the plea agreement, Edem-Effiong had to admit that he stole the identity of a young Nigerian man and used it to apply for a Medicare medical equipment supplier number. Prosecutors said he then billed Medicare for arthritis kids and power wheelchairs, some of which weren't ordered by doctors.
The total amount paid to Edem-Effiong through his company was $983,273.18, though the company billed Medicare for close to $2 million.
Prosecutors considered all billings he made to Medicare to be fraudulent because they said the supplier number was obtained fraudulently.
The medical equipment business was located in Little Rock. The Medicare enrollment packet contained the name, birth date and Social Security number of a person Edem-Effiong knew through church who had moved from Nigeria to the U.S. at the age of 17, prosecutors said.
After the judge explained Edem-Effiong's sentencing on Friday, his lawyer, Stuart Vess, asked Miller to recommend he serve his prison sentence somewhere close to the Houston area because Edem-Effiong's wife lives there. The judge agreed.
He has 45 days to report to the federal prison system.
U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer said prosecuting such cases is a high priority for his office.
"Everyone, the patient who needs equipment and the taxpayer who pays for the equipment through their tax dollars, is defrauded when someone carries out this type of deceptive scheme," he said in a statement. "We are committed to preserving the integrity of the Medicare program for those who legitimately depend on it for their health care needs."
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
