Jose Davila Nunez, 51, of Miami, was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison to be followed by three years of supervised release for Medicaid fraud. He was also ordered to pay $3,869,703 in restitution. Davila and his co-conspirators opened a mental health clinic called New Behavior Health Direction, Incorporated in Hialeah Gardens, Fla. and installed a nominee owner. Between April 2019 and September 2020, Davila and his co-conspirators submitted $3,869,703 in false claims to Medicaid for psychosocial rehabilitation (PSR) services, a type of mental health counseling designed to help people with depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders.
In September 2020, the nominee owner helped to withdraw the fraud proceeds, gave some of that money to Davila, and then the nominee owner fled to Cuba. Davila’s company Max Medical Consulting Services, Incorporated of Miami, Fla. received approximately $500,000 in fraud proceeds from New Behavior. At the sentencing hearing, Davila was also held accountable for an additional $2,617,992 related to Davila and his co-conspirator’s conduct in paying illegal bribes to patients between November 2018 and December 2022 in exchange for PSR services at three other Miami clinics. The US government was able to seize approximately $1.7 million in cash related to New Behavior’s bank accounts.
