A $9 million Miami drug coupon fraud

MIAMI — Two Kendall adult men invested seven decades — not even pausing for the duration of the two several years a person of them was in jail — raking in $9 million in a fraud involving discount coupons intended to aid men and women pay out for prescription medication. They applied mates, wives of good friends, shell organizations and pharmacies that existed only on paper.

This scam took William Clero from the suburbs to downtown, as in the federal detention heart in Miami, following acquiring a 17-yr, 6-thirty day period sentence before this month for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud. Clero’s partner in his most latest crimes, Cesar Armando Perez Amador, now experienced been sentenced to seven decades, a few months.

Each man also acquired assigned $9,086,476 in restitution. In forfeiture, they missing a 2016 GMC Yukon Denali and 2018 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali that Perez drove a 2017 BMW that a close friend of Clero used and 2017 and 2019 Cadillac Escalades that Clero drove.

Clero and Perez started out their scam in 2014, focusing on drug maker systems that used discount codes or savings playing cards to support persons protect out-of-pocket expenses for specified prescription medicines.

Bogus owners, faux pharmacies, real cash

The Kendall cronies recruited persons to be the outlined owners of the pharmacies, which they included and accredited with the Point out of Florida.

“Once accredited, the pharmacies submitted claims underneath the drug price tag-personal savings programs for a period of time of time, and then would be changed with a further pharmacy at the exact same or an additional place, all in Miami-Dade County, in the Southern District of Florida,” Clero’s admission of specifics states. “The pharmacies did not acquire prescription medications for sale, did not have authentic customers who presented authentic prescriptions and did no real, authentic pharmacy enterprise.”

The listed house owners opened pharmacy accounts in their names, but Clero and Perez did not permit them have obtain to individuals accounts.

The to start with of the pharmacies, AVDrugs, registered with the point out in December 2013 and licensed April 2014, experienced a shown handle of 4993 SW 74th Court docket, Suite A. If you Google that handle now, a single of the firms mentioned as staying there is Avalon Pharmacy. Condition documents list Enrique Cubero as president for each and every.

Clero’s admission states “E.C. … was Clero and Perez’s handyman.”

“E.C. experienced to relinquish AVdrugs license soon after a Division of Overall health inspection identified that it was not operating as a pharmacy,” Clero’s admssion carries on. “[Clero and Perez] incorporated AV Drug PH in September 2014 and billed the coupon programs below AVdrugs’ license.”

Clero and Perez did not permit Clero’s two-calendar year prison stint for crimes accomplished in affiliation with Moron Drug & Pharmacy, which the two owned with each other, slow their fraudulent roll.

Though Clero did time for grand theft, organized fraud, controlled material fraud, identification use fraud, illegal drug trafficking, fraudulent prescription drug labels and unauthorized prescription drug income, a Clero relative received Moron’s longtime pharmacy technician, “C.V.,” to be the stated proprietor of Fenix Pharmacy.

“C.V. was tasked with accomplishing the working day-to-working day get the job done of the fraud, i.e., the submission of untrue promises to the coupon plans using coupon or financial savings playing cards, as well as lists of names she was equipped to enter as “patients” into the pharmacy billing system,” Clero’s admission states. “C.V. ongoing to submit fraudulent statements to the coupon plans following Clero was introduced from jail, by the date of the defendants’ arrest on April 1, 2021.”

Point out records for Fenix say “C.V.” is Carmen Velasquez, a certified registered pharmacy tech until finally Dec. 31, 2016. All those exact same point out data say Osvaldo Acosta took about as Fenix’s president right after Velasquez. Clero’s admission claims Perez recruited “O.A.” a longtime mate, then recruited “O.A.’s wife” to be a nominee proprietor of 26 Pharmacy & Price cut.

Perez walked them through the opening of lender accounts, pharmacy licensing and “had them pre-sign books of blank checks for their respective pharmacies. Clero did the identical for “R.G.,” which condition information say is Raisel Gil, as nominee owner of Rubi Pharmacy.

Some nominee owners acquired $10,000 to $15,000 for permitting a pharmacy to be owned and accredited in their identify. Other individuals ended up instructed their pharmacy never got accredited, so they wouldn’t get that hard cash.

Clero and Perez routed the income from the pharmacies to on their own by way of a quantity of shell companies, together with Eco-friendly Eagle, Obvious Options and Olok Corp.