In a significant move against Medicare fraud, a federal jury has convicted Lino Mallari Gutierrez, also known as "Joe Gutierrez," for orchestrating a scheme to defraud the federal health care program to the tune of $10.9 million, as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office. Gutierrez, from Palm City, Florida, faced charges encompassing conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud, along with kickback-related offenses. He has been taken into custody with a sentencing hearing set for July 24, and faces up to 20 years in prison.
Digging deeper, the evidence presented at trial revealed that Gutierrez, alongside accomplices like Jonathan Rouffe, owned and fraudulently managed two durable medical equipment (DME) companies. These entities billed Medicare for medically unnecessary equipment, leading to over $5 million being funneled to Gutierrez and his co-conspirators. This complex fraud involved paying kickbacks to marketing companies that used call centers to aggressively to solicit Medicare patients for undue braces, further procuring unnecessary prescriptions via telemedicine companies.
The prosecution revealed that Gutierrez cunningly obscured his involvement in the scheme by using straw owners to front the DME companies, even placing them in the names of his friends and family, including his own mother. However, his covert operations began to unravel as an investigation by the HHS-OIG and the FBI, part of a national operation stemming from the Middle District of Florida, began uncovering and convicting dozens of co-conspirators involved in similar fraudulent activities.
Co-conspirator Rouffe has already faced the consequences of his actions, having pled guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office's official statement, he was sentenced to four years in prison. Meanwhile, Gutierrez's attempts to quickly move Medicare proceeds between bank accounts after realizing the jig was up only added to the pile of evidence against him. The case, led by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Peresie and Trial Attorney Margaret Mortimer of the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, demonstrates a committed effort to eradicate fraudulent activities threatening the integrity of health care programs.
