An Indian-American pharmacist Sentenced for Multimillion Dollar Medicare/Medicaid Fraud
An Indian-American pharmacist in New York was sentenced March 26, to three years in prison and hefty fines for a massive Medicaid and Medicare fraud, selling ill-gotten prescription drugs over a period of four years to unsuspecting patients, even to the point of potentially threatening their health, according to prosecutors.
Purna Chandra Aramalla, 67, of Port Washington, N.Y., recipient of the 2013 India Association of Long Island Pioneer Award for Excellence in Business, was also ordered to pay more than $7 million in restitution for the fraud, Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced. Going by the charges against him, he appears to have gotten off easy. When he was arrested in 2013, Aramalla was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, which carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison; and one count of money laundering, which also carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison.
Aramalla owned and operated A Fair Deal Pharmacy Inc. in Queens, New York, and Quality Drug Inc. in the Bronx, New York. He purchased prescription drugs, including high-cost medications used to treat HIV, that were obtained from patients who sold the drugs rather than use them to treat their illnesses. He repackaged and resold those prescription drugs to his customers, as if they were new drugs obtained from legitimate sources. He then requested and received reimbursement from Medicaid, Medicare, and New York State-funded AIDS Drug Assistance Program, ADAP. The pharmacist and his co-conspirators used lighter fluid and other means to dissolve the adhesive on the patient labels on prescription bottles so that they could be removed and replaced with new labels.
From January 2010 to September 2013, Aramalla's pharmacies received more than $10 million in reimbursements from Medicaid, Medicare, and ADAP. Apart from his prison term, the judge order Aramalla to forfeit $7,503,605, pay restitution to his victims in the same amount, file amended tax returns for the years 2010 through 2012, and pay back taxes and applicable penalties.
According to a news report in Indian Panorama, Aramalla studied Pharmacy in Andhra University and taught at his alma mater for a few years before coming to the U.S. in 1984. He reportedly built a humanist library in India, was a trustee of the Indo American Cancer Hospital in Hyderabad, and donated funds to several Indian-American organizations.
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