An indictment was unsealed in the Southern District of Florida charging three men for their alleged roles in an approximately $36 million healthcare fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering scheme that involved submitting false and fraudulent claims for COVID-19 testing to healthcare benefit programs, including Medicare and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) COVID-19 Uninsured Program. made his initial appearance in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas. Enrique Perez-Paris, 47, of Aventura, Florida; Diego Sanudo Sanchez Chocron, 47, of Venice, California; and Gregory Charles “Milo” Caskey, 57, of San Antonio, Texas, were owners of Innovative Genomics, an independent laboratory. Between November 2019 and June 2023, the defendants and others allegedly conspired to submit claims for medically unnecessary and non-reimbursable COVID-19 testing. The defendants also allegedly paid illegal kickbacks and bribes to patient recruiters who arranged for healthcare providers to refer the tests to Innovative Genomics. At times, the defendants allegedly caused the HRSA COVID-19 Uninsured Program to be improperly billed for tests for Medicare beneficiaries. The defendants allegedly further billed for tests that the Food and Drug Administration had not approved for emergency-use authorization.
