A Florida man has been sentenced to 14 years behind bars after investigators with the Justice Department's Criminal Division uncovered his health care and wire fraud scheme that cost Medicare over $20 million.
Marc Sporn, 59, of Delray Beach, Florida, was the owner and operator of several telemedicine and telemarketing companies. His operations included CPL Media Group Inc, Medipak, LLC, Real Time Physicians LLC, 24 HR Virtual MD LLC, Medtech Worldwide Inc, New World Holdings Inc, and Ins Cov LLC.
Officials detail that through these operations, Sporn was able to order unnecessary genetic tests for Medicare beneficiaries in exchange for bribes that benefitted Sporn. Sporn also sold prescriptions for these unnecessary genetic tests to laboratories in order to receive kickbacks.
Under his operations Medi Biotech LLC and Walmol Holdings LLC, Sporn was also able to market prescription creams to individuals with certain conditions. As a result, pharmacies billed the insurance companies of individuals being prescribed the prescription cream in exchange for kickbacks paid out by the pharmacies.
Along with using his companies to defraud federal health institutions, officials detail that Sporn was also involved in tax evasion. Dating back to 2000, Sporn evaded paying over $2.5 million in personal income tax. When he was confronted by the IRS about his evasion, Sporn opened and closed different companies while temporarily transferring his assets into external trusts in order to hide his criminal activity.
The DOJ details that Sporn opened up an account under Walmol Holdings LLC. This account served as a shell corporation into which Sporn funneled money in order to evade paying his personal income taxes. In doing so, Sporn used the funds in the account to live a lavish lifestyle which included the purchase of luxury items including watches, diamond jewelry, exotic sports cars, at least two yachts, and other goods.
As a result of his attempt to evade the IRS, Sporn has been ordered to pay $4 million in restitution to the IRS.
The fraud division of the Justice Department's Criminal Division has been on a mission since 2007 to target and stamp out health care fraud by individuals like Sporn. Through the implementation of the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, 15 strike forces across 24 federal districts investigate and go after claims of fraud. The criminal activity conducted by Sporn was uncovered and investigated by the officials in the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program.
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