United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Edward Cannatelli (60, Parkland), Robbyn Cannatelli (68, Parkland), Thomas Farese (82, Fort Lauderdale), and Virginia Lockett (55, Margate) for their roles in a conspiracy to defraud the United States’ Medicare program, make false statements relating to healthcare matters, and offering and paying illegal kickbacks and bribes. They are also charged in a second conspiracy to commit wire and healthcare fraud, and with related substantive counts concerning the falsification of records in the federal investigation leading to the indictment. If convicted on all counts, Edward and Robbyn Cannatelli and Farese each face a maximum penalty of 65 years in federal prison. Lockett faces a maximum penalty of 85 years in federal prison. The indictment also notifies the defendants that the United States intends to forfeit any property, real or personal, which constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to the commission of the offenses.
According to court documents, beginning in June 2019 and continuing into at least June 2020, Edward and Robbyn Cannatelli, Farese, and Lockett, and other conspirators, including Patsy Truglia (56, Parkland) and LouTricia Morgan (49, Sunrise) generated medically unnecessary physicians’ orders via a telemarketing operation for certain orthotic devices—knee braces, back braces, wrist braces, and other braces—referred to as durable medical equipment (DME). Through the telemarketing operation, federal healthcare program beneficiaries’ personal identifying information—names, dates of birth, and Medicare ID numbers—and other health-related information was harvested to begin forming DME brace orders. The information related to the emerging brace orders was then transmitted to purported “telemedicine” vendors that, in exchange for a fee, paid illegal kickbacks and bribes to physicians who signed the orders, often without ever contacting the beneficiaries to conduct the required telehealth consultations. The fraudulent, illegal brace orders were then returned to the conspirators, who used the orders as support for bogus DME claims submitted to Medicare.