P.J. O’Brien, special agent in charge of the New Haven Division of the FBI, and Roberto Coviello, special agent in charge of the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s Office of Investigations, on November 7 announced that Ramon Appellaniz, 40, of Middletown, previous operator of The Gemini Project, LLC, was sentenced to serve 78 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release; and ordered to pay over $1.8 million in restitution to CT Medicaid. Ramon Apellaniz, 40, of Middletown, previously operated The Gemini Project, LLC, a Newington-based business that offered counseling to patients with mental, behavioral, and emotional disorders. In 2020, Apellaniz was charged by the state with larceny, healthcare fraud, and identity theft offenses related to his providing of services to numerous Medicaid beneficiaries as a non-licensed provider, and Gemini billing Medicaid for those services, or for services that were not rendered at all. Apellaniz pleaded nolo contendere and, on April 17, 2024, was sentenced to eight years in prison, execution suspended after 15 months, and five years of parole. He was released from Department of Correction custody on November 19, 2024.