N.J. Pharmacist Nabbed in Medicaid Scam

New Jersey Criminal Justice Director Vaughn McKoy announced that a Monmouth County pharmacist was sentenced for paying kickbacks to Medicaid recipients to solicit business.

According to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden Brown, Abdul Hameed Anayoor, 56, of Howell, Monmouth County, was ordered by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Bette Urmacher to serve two years probation and pay a $2,000 fine. In addition, Anayoor was ordered to surrender his pharmacist license. Anayoor was sentenced pursuant to June 3 guilty plea to a criminal Accusation filed by the Division of Criminal Justice – Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, charging him Medicaid Fraud.

At his guilty plea hearing before Judge Uhrmacher, Anayoor, a registered pharmacist at GLV Parke Warner Pharmacy, located in Neptune, Monmouth County, reportedly admitted that in March, 2003, he offered to pay a kickback of $50 to all new Medicaid recipients that had their prescription drugs filled at GLV Parke Warner Pharmacy. An undercover investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice – Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor determined that Anayoor also offered to pay a $20 kickback for refilled prescriptions at GLV Parke Warner Pharmacy.

On March 23, Anayoor’s co-defendant, Rammohan Pabbathi, 58, of Howell, Monmouth County, owner of GLV Parke Warner Pharmacy, pleaded guilty to a criminal Accusation charging him with Health Care Claims Fraud.

An investigation by the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor determined that Pabbathi billed Medicaid for filling prescriptions that the pharmacy did not actually dispense. The investigation revealed that Anayoor paid the incentives for recipients to use GLV Parke Warner Pharmacy so that Pabbathi could further the fraud. Pabbathi was sentenced on July 8 by Judge Uhrmacher to three years in state prison and ordered to pay $450,000 in restitution and fines to the Medicaid Program.