Man facing massive restitution payment for $30M scheme targeting Medicare patients
A businessman who perpetrated a nearly $30 million health care fraud could be forced to pay back more than $15 million in restitution after agreeing to plead guilty to federal charges this week.
Raju Sharma, 61, of Sharon, owned a medical device company that targeted Medicare beneficiaries by billing the federal health care program for devices the patients often did not need, according to federal prosecutors.
The company billed Medicare more than $29 million for fraudulent medical device orders between 2021 and 2025, roughly $15.8 million of which was paid out.
With the 'substantial profits' he earned from the scheme, Sharma purchased two Ferraris, a Mercedes-Benz, at least three Rolex watches and other high-end goods, prosecutors said.
Sharma agreed to forfeit the luxury items and over $250,000 in cash federal investigators seized from his bank accounts, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for Massachusetts. The office will also recommend that he be sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $15.8 million in restitution.
A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Sharma was arrested in February and released pending trial. He was detained again last month after authorities said he violated the conditions of his release by contacting at least one potential witness in the case.
Sharma, acting on behalf of his companies Pharmagears and RR Medco, worked with telemarketing companies to generate medical device orders for Medicare beneficiaries, prosecutors said.
He is accused of billing Medicare for medically unnecessary devices, which the patients often did not want or could not use. Some devices were ordered without a medical practitioner examining the patient, while others were ordered without providers' knowledge.
Though Sharma agreed in contracts to pay the market companies a flat fee, he instead paid them on a per-lead or per-order basis, in violation of anti-kickback laws, prosecutors said.
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