Thursday, February 27, 2014

Men in separate fraud cases allege misconduct by El Paso federal judge-Pharmacist's conviction for health care fraud vacated

A federal appeals court has vacated the conviction of a former West El Paso pharmacist convicted of healthcare fraud, while a defendant in the city's public corruption case is seeking to have his guilty plea withdrawn.
Both men claim misconduct by a federal judge in El Paso.
In 2012, U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo sentenced Peter Victor Ayika, 58, to 63 months, or more than five years, in prison after he admitted to submitting fraudulent billings to Medicaid, the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program and private insurance providers for medicines and other pharmaceuticals he never dispensed. Montalvo also ordered Ayika to pay $2.5 million in restitution.
Ayika pleaded guilty to fraud after a jury convicted him on charges of possession with intent to distribute hydrocodone by a practitioner and of selling pseudoephedrine to an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent.
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