Find Corporate Waste

Tag: Pennsylvania

  • Pennsylvania Medical Supplier Billed $1.3B in Five Months, DOJ Says

    Pennsylvania Medical Supplier Billed $1.3B in Five Months, DOJ Says

    A Pennsylvania medical supplier allegedly submitted $1.3 billion in fraudulent health care claims during a five-month period, according to the Department of Justice⁠.

    Federal prosecutors charged Erekle Gugava, 33, a Georgian national, with conspiring to launder proceeds from the alleged scheme.

    Gugava purportedly owned ND Medical Solutions LLC from February through July 2025. During that period, the durable medical equipment company allegedly billed Medicare, supplemental insurers, employer-sponsored plans and other insurers for equipment that patients never received.

    Insurers paid ND Medical approximately $6.5 million.

    Prosecutors allege the claims relied partly on stolen identities belonging to elderly and disabled Americans. Many beneficiaries reportedly contacted Medicare and its contractors after receiving benefit statements listing equipment they had never requested, doctors they had never visited and a supplier they did not recognize.

    Gugava allegedly opened several ND Medical bank accounts, deposited insurance payments and helped transfer the proceeds to overseas accounts benefiting a transnational criminal organization based in Russia and elsewhere.

  • Ahold Delhaize USA to Pay $40M Over Allegedly Inflated Pharmacy Prices

    Ahold Delhaize USA to Pay $40M Over Allegedly Inflated Pharmacy Prices

    Ahold Delhaize USA Inc.⁠, the parent company behind supermarket pharmacy brands including Giant, Hannaford, Stop & Shop, Food Lion, and others, has agreed to pay $40 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations involving prescription drug pricing.

    According to the DOJ⁠, Ahold Delhaize allegedly reported inflated “usual and customary” prices on claims submitted to Medicare Part D, Medicaid, and TRICARE. Prosecutors said the company operated prescription savings programs that offered discounted prices to enrolled customers, but allegedly failed to report those discounted prices as the pharmacies’ usual and customary prices.

    That distinction matters because usual and customary prices can operate as ceiling prices in federal health care reimbursement formulas. The government alleged that by reporting higher prices, Ahold Delhaize caused federal health care programs to pay more than they should have paid on pharmacy claims.

    Of the $40 million settlement, $32.9 million represents the federal share, with the remainder going to participating states.

    The case began as a whistleblower action filed by Lawrence LaBenne, a Pennsylvania pharmacist at an Ahold Delhaize supermarket.

    He will receive $6,083,587 from the federal recovery.

    The settlement is another example of how pricing representations, claim-level billing data, and insider knowledge drive many False Claims Act recoveries.

    For Find Corporate Waste⁠, the case fits the broader enforcement pattern: federal programs rely on accurate certifications and truthful claim data, and public money can be recovered when those representations are allegedly false.

  • Delco Woman Pleads Guilty in $7.17M EIDL Fraud-Proceeds Laundering Scheme

    Delco Woman Pleads Guilty in $7.17M EIDL Fraud-Proceeds Laundering Scheme

    A Pennsylvania woman pleaded guilty in a money laundering conspiracy tied to more than $7.17 million in fraud proceeds, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

    Christina Williams, 31, of Drexel Hill, admitted to conspiring to launder fraud proceeds with her mother, Rosemarie Dixon, and others. The case was also highlighted by the SBA Office of Inspector General.

    Prosecutors said Williams Royal Real Estate LLC and Dixon Delish Kitchen LLC were sham businesses with no real operations or employees. Bank accounts opened in those names allegedly received proceeds from fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications and business email compromise schemes.

    The government says the funds were quickly moved between business accounts, personal accounts, and other sham-business accounts controlled by participants in the conspiracy. Prosecutors placed the total amount laundered, attempted to be laundered, or agreed to be laundered at $7,171,730.

    Williams and Dixon are scheduled to be sentenced on September 9. Each faces up to 20 years in prison.

    For Find Corporate Waste, the case underscores a recurring pandemic-fraud lesson: the paper trail does not stop at the false application. It often runs through shell entities, bank accounts, insider permissions, and rapid money movement.