PHARMACIST, PSYCHIATRIST ARE INDICTED; TWO ACCUSED IN $9.9 MILLION INSURANCE FRAUD
–Excerpt
Federal prosecutors Monday charged a pharmacist and a psychiatrist with orchestrating a multimillion-dollar insurance fraud scheme out of a Palm Beach Gardens pharmacy, court documents show…
Two physicians, including psychiatrist Dr. Eric Ressner of Palm Beach
Gardens, helped Sutera substantiate the fake prescriptions, while a
chiropractor and a pharmacy technician assisted in the conspiracy, prosecutors
said.
Sutera provided Ressner with “cash payments delivered in envelopes on a
regular basis” and a $34,000 check in August 2002 for a down payment on
Ressner’s Bocce Court home in the upscale Evergrene development, according to
federal prosecutors.
They are seeking to seize Ressner’s home and $2.3 million “in gross
proceeds obtained as a result of this offense,” court documents show.
Ressner’s attorney maintains his client “did nothing wrong” and the $34,000
was a personal loan. “Any statement made that Eric Ressner received $2.3
million dollars form Joe Sutera is grossly inflated,” attorney Jack Goldberger
said. “We’ve met with the government, we’ve cooperated with government and we
adamantly believe that Dr. Ressner did nothing wrong. If he made any mistake,
it was with the friends he chose, but he didn’t commit any crime.”
Besides being charged with conspiracy and health care fraud, Ressner faces
two counts of making false statements to law enforcement after he told federal
investigators in October 2004 and July 2005 that he only received relatively
minor gifts from Sutera, including two pairs of leather shoes, one of which
didn’t fit, a suit that didn’t fit and some drinks and meals.
Sutera and Ressner, both 51, were arrested and appeared Monday before a
federal judge in Fort Pierce, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Alicia Valle
said. Ressner was released on $250,000 bail, Goldberger said.
Ressner, a physician since 1986 with no record of discipline action, faces
up to 140 years in prison if convicted on 13 health-care-fraud counts and two
counts of providing a false statement.
New York City psychiatrist has been arrested
By John Cote
Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
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