Miami man pleads guilty in $5.4M Medicare fraud

DETROIT (AP) -- Federal authorities say a patient recruiter has pleaded guilty for his participation in a $5.4 million Medicare fraud scheme operated out of three Detroit-area health clinics. Thirty-three-year-old Santiago Villa-Restrepo of Miami pleaded guilty Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow in Detroit to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. That can carry up to 10 years in prison. The government says Villa-Restrepo admits recruiting beneficiaries for three clinics. It says he and others paid bribes to people who agreed to attend the clinics, where they provided their Medicare provider numbers and other information. The government says that allowed the clinics to bill for diagnostic tests that were unnecessary and sometimes weren't provided. Published: Thu, Dec 1, 2011