Photo Courtesy of Google
NY Elm Pharmacy in Flushing
By Forum Staff
An indictment was unsealed on Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn charging Taesung “Terry” Kim and Dacheng “Bruce” Lu with perpetrating a health care fraud scheme to submit false and fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid for medically unnecessary prescriptions and over-the-counter products that were not actually dispensed, to pay illegal kickbacks and bribes, and to launder the proceeds of their scheme.
As set forth in court filings, the defendants owned and operated four pharmacies: 888 Pharmacy Inc. and Huikang Pharmacy Inc., located in Brooklyn, and Elmcare Pharmacy Inc. and NY Elm Pharmacy Inc., located in Queens. Between January 2015 and December 2022, Kim, 58, and Flushing resident Lu, 44, allegedly conspired with others to submit false and fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid for the dispensing of pharmaceutical and over-the-counter products that were medically unnecessary, procured by the payment of kickbacks and bribes, or not provided. Further, Kim and Lu allegedly conspired with others who paid illegal kickbacks and bribes, in the form of cash and supermarket gift certificates, to Medicare beneficiaries and Medicaid recipients who filled their prescriptions at their pharmacies. Kim and Lu also conspired with others to pay and paid illegal kickbacks and bribes, in the form of rent and office staff, to the doctors who prescribed the medically unnecessary medications filled at their pharmacies.
Photo Courtesy of Google
NY Elm Pharmacy in Flushing
Kim and Lu allegedly laundered the proceeds of their fraud through shell entities to generate cash that they could disperse as profits to themselves and the pharmacies’ other owners, and to pay pharmacy customers as kickbacks. As part of the scheme, Kim and Lu’s pharmacies submitted approximately $26 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid.
The defendants each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud, 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering, and five years in prison for conspiracy to pay illegal health care kickbacks and bribes.
