New York
Charges: Nurses made $1.5 million off of forged vaccination cards
AMITYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Two nurses on Long Island are accused of forging COVID-19 vaccination cards and pocketing more than $1.5 million from the scheme, prosecutors and police said.
Julie DeVuono, the owner of Wild Child Pediatric Healthcare in Amityville, and her employee, Marissa Urraro, are both charged with felony forgery, and DeVuono also is charged with offering a false instrument for filing. Both were arraigned Friday.
Urraro’s lawyer, Michael Alber, urged people not to rush to judgment about the allegations and said his client is a well-respected nurse.
“We look forward to highlighting the legal impediments and defects of the investigation,” he said Saturday. “It’s our hope that an accusation definitely doesn’t overshadow the good work Miss Urraro’s done for children and adults in the medical field.”
A messages seeking comment was left with DeVuono’s attorney.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said DeVuono and Urraro handed out fake vaccination cards, charging $220 for adults and $85 for children. DeVuono, a nurse practitioner, and Urraro, a licensed practical nurse, entered the false information into the state’s immunization database, he said.
Prosecutors said the nurses forged a fake card showing a vaccine was given to an undercover detective but never administered the vaccine to the detective.
Law enforcement officers searched DeVuono’s home and said they seized about $900,000 in cash and a ledger showing profits of more than $1.5 million from the scheme, which began in November 2021.
“I hope this sends a message to others who are considering gaming the system that they will get caught and that we will enforce the law to the fullest extent,” Tierney said in a statement with other officials.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison added, “As nurses, these two individuals should understand the importance of legitimate vaccination cards as we all work together to protect public health.”
Maine
Appeals court upholds charges in medical marijuana arrests
BANGOR, Maine (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld charges against two men accused of being part of a large drug ring in Maine that sold medical marijuana to people who were not patients.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled Thursday that the prosecution of the two men was not prohibited under federal protections granted to states by Congress to regulate medical marijuana, the Bangor Daily News reported.
In their appeal, the two defendants, Tyler Poland and amateur golfer Brian Bilodeau, argued they shouldn’t be charged because of those protections, the newspaper reported.
“The conduct that drew the government’s attention was the defendants’ cultivation, possession, and distribution of marijuana aimed at supplying persons whom no defendant ever thought were qualifying patients under Maine law,” Judge William Kayatta wrote in the ruling.
An attorney for Bilodeau, Jamesa Drake, did not immediately return a request for comment from the newspaper.
The men were among more than 12 people who were arrested in 2018 for allegedly selling marijuana grown under the auspices of a medical marijuana business. Police raided 20 properties in the Lewiston-Auburn area in February of that year and confiscated 600 pounds of marijuana and several expensive cars.
The defendants included people from Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts.
Marijuana is illegal at the federal level, but 36 states have allowed it in some form, including Maine, which legalized adult use.
New York
Prosecution completes case at Michael Avenatti fraud trial
NEW YORK (AP) — The government rested its case on Monday at a trial where jurors have heard allegations that California lawyer Michael Avenatti stole nearly $300,000 in book proceeds from porn star Stormy Daniels to pay employees at his debt-ridden law firm and to cover personal expenses.
Avenatti, who is acting as his own attorney, has said he wants to call several witnesses to defend himself against wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. It was unclear if he will testify himself.
Taking the stand as prosecutors’ star witness in federal court in Manhattan, Daniels told the jury last week that she had hired Avenatti in early 2018 to represent her in her claims against former President Donald Trump.
Daniels wanted out of a nondisclosure deal with Trump so she could speak publicly about having a sexual tryst with him. Trump has denied the claims.
Prosecutors say Avenatti ended up cheating the entertainer out of nearly $300,000 of her $800,000 publisher’s advance on her tell-all 2018 autobiography, “Full Disclosure.”
When Daniels was asked her reaction when she learned in February 2019 that payments from her publisher that were made months earlier had never been passed along to her, she said she was “very, very angry. Shocked. Disbelief. Hurt, and I felt very betrayed and stupid.”
Among the final prosecution witnesses on Monday was Elizabeth Beier, an executive editor for Daniels’ autobiography. On cross-examination by Avenatti, Beier said only about 40,000 copies of the book were sold, well short of the 150,000 the publisher had expected.
“We lost money on the book,” she said.
California
Medical imaging company CEO sentenced for medical fraud
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The CEO of several medical imaging companies in California was sentenced to federal prison on Friday for bilking insurers out of tens of millions of dollars by bribing doctors to prescribe unnecessary tests.
Sam Sarkis Solakyan, 40, of Glendale, was sentenced to five years in prison. A San Diego federal judge also ordered him to repay nearly $30 million to insurers, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.
Solakyan was the CEO of several companies, including Vital Imaging Inc. of Glendale and San Diego MRI Institute and operated facilities throughout California, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and Orange counties and San Diego, the statement said.
Prosecutors said that Solakyan paid some $9 million in bribes and kickbacks to doctors to refer patients for unnecessary diagnostic procedures, mainly MRIs, then submitted some $250 million in fraudulent claims through the California Workers’ Compensation System.
Saolakyan was convicted last July of one count of conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud and health care fraud, and 11 counts of honest services mail fraud.
