Pharmacy Owner Sentenced in $100 Million Compounding Fraud Scheme

Monday, April 30, 2018 | 0

The owner of several compounding pharmacies in Florida was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a massive scheme that defrauded insurers of more than $100 million, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

Nicholas A. Borgesano Jr., 45, of New Port Richey, Florida, owned several pharmacies and shell companies that were used to submit false bills for ingredients that compounded medications, pain creams and scar creams did not contain, federal authorities said. 

Borgesano will now have to pay more than $54 million in restitution, and he and co-conspirators have forfeited a boat and several cars, including a 2008 Lamborghini convertible.

Borgesano and others convicted in the case also paid kickbacks and bribes in exchange for prescriptions and patient information, authorities said. Some of those illegal payments went to a physician in exchange for his signing prescriptions for patients he never saw.

The scheme affected private insurers, Medicare and the military health insurer Tricare, prosecutors said.

Also sentenced in the case were: Scott P. Piccininni, 49, of Fort Lauderdale; Bradley Sirkin, 55, of Boca Raton; Peter B. Williams, 57, of New Port Richey; Joseph Degregorio, 71, of New Port Richey; Matthew N. Sterner, 48, of New Port Richey; and Edwin Patrick Young, 49, of New Port Richey.