WEST PALM BEACH — A Delray Beach man who said he was "duped" into helping his business partners defraud Medicare will spend a year in federal prison for the crime.
Jamie Michael Larkin, 37, pleaded guilty in February to conspiring to commit health care fraud, a felony for which he faced up to 10 years in prison. Federal prosecutors recommended a lighter sentence during a recent hearing in West Palm Beach, pointing to the assistance they said Larkin provided investigators.
Larkin said Patrick O'Brien and Omar Solari — two men who had burned their relationships with insurance companies in previous audits — approached him in 2021 with an intriguing business opportunity: Invest $115,000 in a Georgia pharmacy called Rite Care and become its owner, splitting the profits equally among the three men.
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The pair promised to manage all facets of the operation while upholding Larkin as its sole owner to keep their interests in the pharmacy hidden, lest they be audited again. They also promised Larkin that he could one day sell the pharmacy and keep the proceeds for himself.
Larkin agreed, signing off on business documents from his Delray Beach home 650 miles south of the pharmacy. Prosecutors said his signature paved the way for a yearlong scam involving unscrupulous telemedicine companies and thousands of unwitting beneficiaries.
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O'Brien and Solari paid telemarketers to cold-call elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries and encourage them to accept prescriptions for topical creams, at no cost to the beneficiaries. According to court records, the men then paid kickbacks to telemedicine companies for bogus consultations with the beneficiaries, creating thousands of falsified prescriptions.
Investigators said the duo continued to submit fraudulent claims for months' worth of refills even after beneficiaries complained that they didn't want the medication, did not use it and had too much of it. Prosecutors said they defrauded Medicare out of $997,911 in the span of a year.
Though Larkin was promised 33% of the profits, he said he was repaid only $70,000 and "actually lost money" during the conspiracy.
Defense attorney Tama Kudman blamed O'Brien and Solari for misrepresenting the investment opportunity they pitched Larkin. He didn't know his business partners were paying kickbacks or submitting bills for unnecessary medical services, she said, nor that they had a legal obligation to disclose their interests in the pharmacy.
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She added that Larkin took full responsibility for his role in the crime and cooperated with law enforcement when approached about the scheme. Kudman told U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that Larkin was a changed man. She described him as a successful and responsible business owner, who now chooses his friends more wisely and scrutinizes business opportunities more carefully.
"In short, he has grown up," Kudman said.
She asked Cannon to sentence him to home confinement, contending that the near million-dollar restitution he owes the government is punishment enough.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Abraham said that while Larkin's role was minor compared to that of his co-conspirators, it warranted more than a non-prison penalty. He pointed to Larkin's criminal history, which included selling black-market steroids in Palm Beach County and laundering more than $2 million between 2019 and 2021.
Cannon agreed. She sentenced Larkin on July 23 to one year in prison, followed by two years of supervised release. The judge barred Larkin from owning any healthcare business during the two-year term. His co-conspirators have not yet been sentenced.
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Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com .
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Delray pharmacy owner says he was 'duped' into defrauding Medicare out of $1 million
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