EYEWITNESS NEWS (WBRE/WYOU) — Investigators announced seven people have been charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud that involved "foot baths."
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania stated the following people were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud:
Frank Suess (a.k.a., Franz P. Suess), 78, of Wellington, Florida
Luis Salgado, 50, of Naperville, Illinois, and Davenport, Florida
Melissa Driscoll, 43, of East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania
Victor Velazco, 35, of Loxahatchee, Florida
Warren Pizik, 68, of Davie, Florida
Dave Singh, 37, of Pembroke Pines, Florida
Diana Castro, 53, of Brooklyn, New York
According to U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam, between 2019 and 2020, all seven suspects planned to commit healthcare fraud through an arrangement designed to bill people's health insurance for unnecessary prescription drug combinations known as "foot baths."
Officials explained that the foot bath scheme was claimed to be an antibiotic and antifungal "foot soak" treatment that patients would mix and dissolve in a warm water solution, using a plastic foot tub that was sometimes shipped to them.
The combinations of prescription drugs contained in the foot baths varied, but they generally included high-cost drugs that were not intended for use in a foot bath, detectives said.
Ten charged with interstate auto theft conspiracy
"Many of the fake foot bath orders were through Sterling Pharmacy, located in Jermyn, Pennsylvania. Melissa Driscoll purchased Sterling Pharmacy in March 2018 using funds that she obtained from Frank Suess, along with Victor Velazco," explained Karam.
Sterling Pharmacy was one of the pharmacies used to carry out the scheme. The suspects also used unnamed pharmacies located in Texas and Florida.
Sterling Pharmacy allegedly paid MedX kickbacks for the referral of signed foot bath order forms. "These foot-bath orders were generated using templated forms that were provided to patient recruiters. These patient recruiters included a diabetic shoe salesman working at a shopping mall in Scranton, and a group of people who set up "health fairs" in New York," as stated in the release.
Police say from the health fairs and patient recruitment, Sterling Pharmacy received hundreds of foot-bath prescription orders.
The maximum penalty for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and the Anti-Kickback Statute is 10 years of prison, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine, for eachoffense.
