According to the indictment, Medicare issued and continued to reauthorize a provider number for Elite Home Care based on fraudulent application documents Mr. Fornaris and his co-conspirators submitted. The number enabled Mr. Fornaris and his co-conspirators to submit false claims to Medicare for services that were not medically necessary or were never provided, according to the DOJ.
Medicare paid about $15 million due to the false claims submitted by Elite Home Care.
From April 2010 through July 2016, Mr. Fornaris and his co-conspirators hid their ownership in Elite Home Care in the name of a nominee owner — a person who holds ownership rights on behalf of the true economic owner — to conceal their participation in the healthcare fraud scheme, according to the DOJ.
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