Date: 06-27-2024

Case Style:

United States of America v. James Brandon “Brady” Washburn; Robert Houston McDowell; Paulo R. Costa; Mark J.W. Carr

Case Number: 3:24-cr-00121

Judge: Waverly D. Crenshaw, Jr.

Court: The United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee (Davidson County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: The United States Attorney’s Office in Nashville

Defendant's Attorney:

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Description:

Nashville, Tennessee criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with $15 Million in False Medicare Billing
Middle District of Tennessee Charges Four Individuals Responsible for $15 Million in False Medicare Billing as Part of National Health Care Fraud Takedown

"Fraud and abuse continue to plague our federal health care programs and divert funds away from deserving patients,” said Henry C. Leventis, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. “As United States Attorney for the nation’s health care capital, I am proud of my office’s leadership on health care fraud enforcement and I am very appreciative of Attorney General Garland highlighting our efforts during his remarks earlier today.”

“It does not matter if you are a trafficker in a drug cartel or a corporate executive or medical professional employed by a health care company, if you profit from the unlawful distribution of controlled substances, you will be held accountable,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department will bring to justice criminals who defraud Americans, steal from taxpayer-funded programs, and put people in danger for the sake of profits.”

James Brandon “Brady” Washburn, 44, of Franklin, Tennessee, and Robert Houston McDowell, 43, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, were charged by indictment with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive health care kickbacks, and paying and receiving health care kickbacks, in connection with their role in selling doctors’ orders for medically unnecessary genetic tests, medications, and durable medical equipment (“DME”) to laboratories, pharmacies, and DME companies. The defendants also owned and operated their own DME companies in Franklin and Brentwood, Tennessee, and bought doctors’ orders for orthotic braces and submitted claims for medically unnecessary items to Medicare. The defendants obtained the orders by paying kickbacks and bribes to purported telemedicine companies and marketers in exchange for doctors signing orders for DME. The indictment alleges that the defendants and their co-conspirators received over $1 million in kickbacks for selling doctors’ orders to laboratories, pharmacies, and DME companies; that they submitted and caused to be submitted, through their DME companies, over $6 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for DME; and that their DME companies were paid over $2 million on those claims.

Paulo R. Costa, 36, of Palm City, Florida, and Mark J.W. Carr, 35, of Lighthouse Point, Florida were each charged by separate information with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and to pay and receive health care kickbacks in connection with an over $9 million scheme involving multiple pharmacies, including in Mt. Juliet and Goodlettsville, Tennessee. As alleged in the informations, the defendants obtained patient information through the use of call centers where telemarketers persuaded Medicare beneficiaries to accept prescriptions for expensive medications, which the beneficiaries neither needed nor wanted. The defendants obtained signed prescriptions by paying kickbacks to marketers and telemedicine companies and then billed Medicare Part D plan sponsors for prescriptions that were procured through the payment of kickbacks and that were medically unnecessary.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah K. Bogni and Robert S. Levine of the Middle District of Tennessee are prosecuting the cases in the Middle District of Tennessee.

Outcome:

An information or indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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Defendant's Experts:

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