Two South Florida doctors were arrested on charges related to the unlawful dispensing of opioids.

Ariana Fajardo Orshan, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, Shimon R. Richmond, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Miami Regional Office, Adolphus P. Wright, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Miami Field Office, Brian Swain, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service (USSS), Miami Field Office, and Ashley B. Moody, Florida Attorney General, made the announcement.

Dr. Victor Hugo Espinosa, 57, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida is charged by criminal complaint with conspiring to unlawfully dispense controlled substances from August 9, 2017 to May 3, 2018. According to the complaint, as the designated physician at East Medical Office Inc., a pain clinic located in Hialeah Florida, Espinosa provided over 1,000 prescriptions for Oxycodone for no legitimate medical purpose in exchange for cash. During his time at East Medical, Espinosa prescribed approximately 119,534 tablets of Oxycodone, which accounted for approximately 99% of all controlled substances he prescribed at East Medical.  Many of the patients to whom Espinosa prescribed Oxycodone were brought to East Medical by patient recruiters, who received and then illegally sold all or a portion of the Oxycodone Espinosa prescribed. 

Dr. Rodolfo Gonzalez-Garcia, 65, of Weston, Florida, is charged by indictment, along with his wife Arlene Gonzalez, 60, of Weston, Florida, Sucett Lopez, 36, of, Hialeah, Florida, Annie Suarez-Gonzalez, 35, of Westmont, Illinois, and Fidel Marrero-Castellanos, 56, of Miami, Florida.  The indictment alleges that between November 2016 and September 2018, Gonzalez-Garcia was the physician provider for West Medical Office, Inc. in Hialeah, Florida.  Marrero-Castellanos and others recruited Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries as patients to West and paid Gonzalez-Garcia, Gonzalez, Lopez and Suarez-Gonzalez, and others, for Oxycodone and OxyContin prescriptions. 

Each defendant faces a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment. The defendants had their initial appearance today in Miami, Florida before U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres.   Pre-trial detention hearings have been scheduled, for Dr. Gonzalez-Garcia and Marrero-Castellanos, on February 12, 2019. 

An indictment and a criminal complaint are charging instruments containing allegations.  Every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Today’s enforcement actions were coordinated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division Fraud Section’s Health Care Fraud Unit, the FBI, HHS, DEA, USSS and Florida Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.  They were initiated as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force.  The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian J. Shack and Michael Gilfarb.

The Fraud Section leads the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which is part of a joint initiative between the Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country.  Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which maintains 14 strike forces operating in 23 districts, has charged nearly 4,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $14 billion.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.

Ariana Fajardo Orshan, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Omar Perez, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG), Miami Regional Office, George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, and Adolphus P. Wright, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Miami Field Division announced that Dr. Rodolfo Gonzalez Garcia, 65, of Weston, Florida pled guilty on August 23, 2019, to conspiring to dispense a controlled substance, Oxycodone, before U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman (Case No. 19-cr-20055).

According to the court record, including the agreed upon factual proffers, from November 2016, through and including September 2018, Dr. Rodolfo Gonzalez Garcia, his wife Arlene Gonzalez, 59, also of Weston, Annie Suarez Gonzales, 35, of Chicago, Illinois, and Fidel Marrero-Castellanos, 57, of Hialeah, Florida and others, used West Medical Office, Inc. located in Hialeah (later named West Pines Medical Office) for illicit purposes.  During this time period, the defendants agreed to prescribe purported patients that had been brought to the office by patient recruiters, prescriptions for Oxycodone.  They also agreed that patient recruiters could merely bring lists containing the names of purported patients directly to West Medical Office, instead of requiring the patients’ presence.  In either scenario, the defendants agreed that the patient or patient recruiters would pay West Medical Office a certain cash amount per patient present in the office or per patient name on a list, in exchange for an Oxycodone prescription. Sometimes, these agreements—money for prescriptions—were directly with the purported patient.  The defendants knew that these patients were Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and that filling those prescriptions at pharmacies would result in the submission of claims to Medicare and Medicaid for payment of those prescriptions. 

The charged co-conspirators had various roles in the conspiracy.  Marrero-Castellanos acted as a patient recruiter, bringing lists and paying cash in exchange for a prescription for the names on his list.  Marrero-Castellanos took the patients with their prescriptions to pharmacies, including Medicare Part D participating pharmacies, to fill the aforementioned prescriptions.  When he got the prescriptions based on just a patient list, he provided the aforementioned prescriptions to pharmacies, including Medicare Part D participating pharmacies.  Sometimes, the patients went to the pharmacies on their own.  All of the recruited patients gave Marrero-Castellanos their Oxycodone pills.  Marrero-Castellanos sold those pills to others.   Suarez and Arlene Gonzalez facilitated the exchange of cash for prescriptions, filled out prescriptions, and in certain instances, Arlene Gonzalez signed prescriptions with Dr. Rodolfo Gonzalez Garcia’s name.  These activities occurred even when Dr. Rodolfo Gonzalez Garcia was not in the office. To facilitate the conspiracy, Dr. Rodolfo Gonzalez Garcia provided prescriptions for Oxycodone, even though he did not provide patients with a meaningful consultation or examination commensurate with prescribing oxycodone according to national standards and norms, nor those of the State of Florida, for such prescriptions.  As a result of the conspiracy, Dr. Gonzalez Garcia unlawfully distributed Oxycodone.  

Dr. Gonzalez Garcia is scheduled to be sentenced on November 8, 2019, by Judge Altman.  He faces a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years in prison.

Co-defendants Arlene Gonzalez and Suarez pled guilty to conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks and are scheduled to be sentenced on November 8, 2019, and October 25, 2019, respectively.  They each face a maximum statutory sentence of 5 years in prison.   Co-defendant Marrero-Casetellanos previously pled guilty to conspiracy to pay and receive health care kickbacks and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and is scheduled to be sentenced on October 25, 2019.  He faces a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years in prison. 

U.S. Attorney Fajardo Orshan commended the investigative efforts of HHS-OIG, FBI and DEA.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Gilfarb and Lindsey Lazopoulos Friedman. 

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.