WHITE PLAINS – US District Judge Kimba Wood Wednesday imposed a federal prison sentence of just under 13 years on Julio Alvarado, a 63-year-old Yonkers man for leading a scheme to defraud Medicaid of millions of dollars through the billing of fraudulent transportation claims.
Alvarado previously pled guilty to one count of healthcare fraud.
According to court filings and statements made during court proceedings, KJ Transportation C Services Inc. was paid more than $20 million for providing transportation services to Medicaid enrollees in the New York City area.
A large number of those claims were fraudulent. In some instances, the recipient was dead or out of the country when KJ claims it was transporting the person to medical appointments. In other instances, the company used stolen identities or the Medicaid recipients had received unlawful kickbacks from defendants in exchange for either providing KJ their Medicaid information or for fraudulently scheduling trips they did not tape.
Alvarado, who supervised over a dozen other participants in the scene, was responsible for billing over $8 million in fraudulent trip claims.
In addition to the prison term, he was sentenced to three years of post-release supervision and ordered to pay $8.5 million in restitution and forfeit $8.5 million.