Florida Man Pleads Guilty To $28.3 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

FLORIDA – A man who had been the owner and operator of multiple physical therapy rehabilitation facilities pleaded guilty Monday for his role in organizing and leading a $28.3 million Medicare fraud scheme involving physical and occupational therapy services, federal officials said.

Luis Duluc, 53, formerly of southwest Florida, pleaded guilty in federal court and is facing up to 15 years in prison.

Court records indicate that Duluc and his co-conspirators used various physical therapy clinics and other business entities throughout Florida and elsewhere to submit approximately $28,347,065 in fraudulent reimbursement claims to Medicare from 2005 through 2009. Medicare paid approximately $14,424,865 on those claims.

Duluc was chairman and president of a Delaware holding company known as Ulysses Acquisitions Inc.

Working with co-conspirators in Miami and elsewhere, Duluc obtained identifying information of Medicare beneficiaries by paying kickbacks and stealing beneficiaries’ identifying information.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Team (HEAT), go to:www.stopmedicarefraud.gov .