Durable Medical Equipment Company Owner Pleads Guilty to Health Care Fraud

Miami, Florida – Ariel Madero Paez, 56, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Ft. Pierce to fraudulently billing Medicare over $2 million for durable medical that was never provided to beneficiaries.  

According to court records, from November 2021 through May 2022, Madero owned Always Medical Supply (“Always”), located in Stuart, Florida.  Always, a Florida corporation, purported to provide durable medical equipment (“DME”) to eligible Medicare beneficiaries.  In a five-month period in 2022, Always submitted approximately $2.2 million in fraudulent health care claims to Medicare for DME that Always never provided, and that Medicare beneficiaries never requested.  As a result, Medicare paid over $1.4 million.  After Madero’s arrest on May 6, 2022 at the Miami International Airport, bank accounts for Always and Madero had a sum of over $500,000 derived from or traceable to the health care fraud.

United States District Court Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks will sentence Madero on October 5, at 11:00 a.m. in West Palm Beach.  At sentencing, Madero faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 years on the health care charges.

Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Omar Pérez Aybar, Special Agent in Charge, Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Miami Region announced the guilty plea that defendant entered before U.S. Magistrate Judge Shaniek M. Maynard.     

HHS-OIG Miami investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana M. Acosta prosecuted it.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Laserna is handling asset forfeiture.  

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cr-14023.

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