WASHINGTON – The owner and operator of two Miami medical clinics has pled guilty to defrauding the Medicare program for $5.3 million.

According to Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida, Orlando Pascual Jr., 43, pled guilty on Jan. 7, 2009, to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud before U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro. Pascual admitted that he co-owned two Miami clinics, named Medcore Group LLC and M&P Group of South Florida, Inc., that appeared to specialize in the treatment of HIV-positive patients.

According to reports, beginning in August 2004 and continuing through November 2006, Pascual conspired with others to submit approximately $5.3 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare. He also pled guilty to two separate charges related to laundering the proceeds of the healthcare fraud.

Pascual admitted that Medcore and M&P were operated for the purpose of defrauding Medicare, that the treatments for infused or injected drugs were not medically necessary and that he and others paid cash kickbacks to the patients for every visit to the clinic.

Pascual is currently jailed for Medicare fraud involving the operation of a durable medical equipment company in Miami from 2001 to 2003. Sentencing in this case is scheduled for April 3, 2009.

Seven co-defendants in the case are scheduled for trial beginning Feb. 9, 2009, in the Southern District of Florida.

The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force (MFSF), supervised by the Criminal Division's Fraud Section and U.S. Attorney Acosta of the Southern District of Florida. Since the inception of MFSF operations, federal prosecutors have indicted 106 cases with 189 defendants in both Los Angeles and Miami. Collectively, these defendants fraudulently billed the Medicare program for more than half a billion dollars.