Medicare fraudster given another chance by Trump arrested on eve of birthday after allegedly threatening wife in front of family members
By Matt Naham,
3 hours ago
Another Donald Trump clemency recipient with a new lease on life, this one a health care executive turned convicted Medicare fraudster , was arrested on his birthday weekend in Miami, Florida, and faces two felony charges stemming from an alleged domestic violence incident.
The tampering with a witness and criminal mischief case against Philip Esformes , who was booked into the Miami-Dade County jail Sunday, the day he turned 56, made Esformes the seventh Trump clemency recipient to face new charges, the New York Times reported .
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According to the report, Esformes allegedly threatened his wife, damaged her cell phone to keep her from calling the cops, and broke “items on a table filled with glassware” in front of family members on the eve of his birthday.
Esformes was convicted in 2019 in what the Justice Department called the “largest health care fraud scheme ever charged” by the department. According to prosecutors, Esformes led an “extensive health care fraud conspiracy” between January 1998 and July 2016 involving a network of assisted living facilities and skilled nursing facilities that he owned.
That scheme involved cycling patients through his facilities where they “often failed to receive appropriate medical services or received medically unnecessary services billed to Medicare and Medicaid.” Many of these facilities were in poor conditions, according to witnesses, which Esformes covered with bribes to Florida state officials.
A 20-year prison sentence followed, but so did clemency.
Court records reviewed by Law&Crime say that a stay away order has been issued and that Esformes is not currently in jail. An arraignment has been set for 9 a.m. on Nov. 12. The court docket indicated that Esformes has a private defense attorney but did not provide specifics.
how is this surprising? the only qualification that the orange turd looks at for clemency, position in the cabinet, supreme court position, etc....is loyalty
Patricia Taylor
13m ago
The man stole 37 million from fraudulent Medicare claims.. was in prison barely a year and Trump pardoned him.. the thieves stick together
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