Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 3-14-17

Fraud Cases
Former State Representative Indicted On Fraud Charges
The unsealing of an in- dictment charging a for- mer Florida House of Representatives member was announced last week. He was indicted on 9 counts of wire fraud.
If convicted, 49-year- old Dwayne L. Taylor, of Daytona Beach, is fac- ing a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison on each count.
The indictment also notified Taylor that the United States is seeking a money judgment in the amount of $62,834, which are considered the pro- ceeds of the alleged crimi- nal conduct.
According to the in-
DWAYNE L. TAYLOR
dictment, during Tay- lor’s 2012 and 2014 re- election campaigns, he falsely reported thousands of dollars of expenditures to the State of Florida in order to conceal a series of cash withdrawals, checks
written to himself, and checks written to petty cash, in violation of Florida law.
Taylor then used the misappropriated funds for personal expenditures un- related to his re-election campaigns. Under Florida law, neither a candidate nor the spouse of a candi- date may use funds on de- posit in a campaign account to defray normal living expenses for the candidate or the candi- date’s family, other than expenses actually incurred for transportation, meals, and lodging during travel in the course of the cam- paign.
Man Pleads Guilty To Being Paid Health Care Kickbacks
ANTHONIO MILLER Entered a guilty plea
A 26-year-old Tampa man pleaded guilty to con- spiracy to pay kickbacks in connection with a federal health care benefit pro- gram last week. A sentenc- ing date has not been set.
Anthonio Miller is facing up to 5 years in fed- eral prison.
According to the plea agreement, Miller was an active duty petty officer with the U. S. Navy sta- tioned at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. Be- ginning in October 2014, he became a sales repre- sentative for Centurion Compounding, Inc. Centu- rion, a marketing firm lo- cated in Wesley Chapel, utilized sales representa- tives as independent con- tractors to market compounded medications, specifically creams for pain and scars, to health care benefit program ben- eficiaries.
Centurion focused its promotional efforts on TRICARE beneficiaries based upon an under- standing and belief that TRICARE would pay claims for these com- pounded creams.
Miller was initially re- cruited into the Centurion scheme by other active- duty military members, in- cluding his co-defendant Cordera Hill, to be a pa- tient and to obtain com- pounded creams marketed
CORDERA HILL Co-defendant
by Centurion.
On October 22, 2014,
Miller received a pre- scription from a doctor for pain cream and scar cream. He went on to ob- tain additional prescrip- tions in his own name, for which TRICARE paid ap- proximately $60,673.06.
Miller agreed and con- spired with other mem- bers of his Centurion sales marketing group, self-la- beled “team cream,” to give and offer to give TRI- CARE beneficiaries incen- tives, such as cash, meals, entertainment, and travel expenses, to visit a doctor and obtain prescriptions for Centurion-marketed compounded creams for which Miller and other “team cream” members would receive commis- sions.
Between October 2014 and February 2015, Miller caused approxi- mately $655,611 in claims to be submitted to TRI- CARE, resulting in the payments of $558,090.04 for prescriptions, from which Centurion and Miller received commis- sions.
Miller received com- missions from Centurion totaling approximately $19,977.53 and, at the time Centurion was shut down in February 2015, Miller was owed an additional $34,999.25 in commis- sions from Centurion.
Man Pleads Guilty To Selling Stolen Identities
A 23-year-old man en- tered a guilty plea in fed- eral court last Thursday. He is charged with aggra- vated identity theft.
In September 2016, a Confidential Informant (CI) told investigators that Jordan Tito, of Tampa, offered to sell him stolen identities for $10 each. The CI could use the infor- mation to make counter- feit credit cards, fake IDs, and otherwise access the victims’ credit.
The information Tito
JORDAN TITO
offered included names, dates of birth and
Social Security numbers of various people.
Investigators said Tito sold the CI the informa- tion of 86 people, each printed on a separate sheet of paper. The stolen information of 29 of the individuals sold to the CI was that of children, offi- cials said.
Tito is facing a manda- tory prison sentence of at least two years in federal prison. No sentencing date has been scheduled for Tito, officials said.
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