Telemedicine Company Owner Charged With $784M Healthcare Fraud

Creaghan Harry, an owner of multiple telemedicine companies, was indicted Tuesday for $784 million in healthcare fraud, illegal kickbacks, and tax evasion schemes, according to the US Justice Department.

The Medicare fraud scheme is one of the largest ever charged by the Department of Justice. Harry, a 53-year-old from Highland Beach, Florida, was also charged with concealing and disguising the proceeds of the scheme to avoid paying income taxes.

In the superseding indictment, Harry was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud, along with four counts of income tax evasion. He is facing a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud, five years in prison on each count of tax evasion, five years in prison for the conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive kickbacks, 10 years in prison for each count of receipt of kickbacks, and 20 years in prison on the conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Harry and co-conspirators solicited illegal kickbacks and bribes from durable medical equipment suppliers and marketers in exchange for orders from durable medical equipment braces and medications, according to allegations. His companies allegedly paid physician to write medically unnecessary orders for such items. The telemedicine companies provided orders to suppliers that fraudulently billed Medicare more than $784 million, of which it paid more than $247 million.

The durable medical equipment suppliers and marketers were told not to directly pay Harry’s telemedicine companies and pay shell companies that were opened in the names of straw owners in the United States and in foreign countries. The money was then transferred from the shell companies to the telemedicine companies to pay physicians to write the unnecessary orders.

According to the superseding indictment, Harry falsely claimed to prospective investors, lawyers, and others that his telemedicine companies did not receive any kickbacks.

This is not the first time Harry has been involved in conspiracy indictments. He was previously charged along with co-conspirators Lester Stockett and Elliot Loewenstern with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive kickbacks, four counts of receipt of kickbacks, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Both Stockett and Loewenstern pleaded guilty.