WASHINGTON D.C.
The former owner of Ezcor Medical Supply in Valencia was sentenced today to serve 97 months in federal prison for her role in a fraud scheme that resulted in $3.5 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medi-Cal.
U.S District Judge R. Gary Klausner also ordered Sylvia Walter-Eze, 48, of Stevenson Ranch, California, to pay restitution in the amounts of $1.8 million to Medicare and $73,268 to Medi-Cal.
Walter-Eze was found guilty by a federal jury on March 20 of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, four counts of health care fraud, and one count of conspiracy to pay illegal health care kickbacks.
The evidence indicated that Walter-Eze, the former owner of Ezcor, a durable medical equipment supply company, fraudulently billed more than $3.5 million to Medicare and Medi-Cal for DME that was not medically necessary.
The trial evidence also demonstrated that Walter-Eze paid illegal kickbacks to patient recruiters in exchange for patient referrals.
The evidence further showed that Walter-Eze paid kickbacks to physicians for fraudulent prescriptions for medically unnecessary, and expensive, power wheelchairs, which prescriptions
Walter-Eze then used to support her fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medi-Cal.
The evidence showed that, between 2007 and 2012, Walter-Eze submitted $3,521,786 in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medi-Cal, and that she received $1,939,529 in reimbursement for those claims.