CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) - A New Jersey man has become the latest person to plead guilty in connection to a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme involving compound medications.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Rocco Cammalleri of Budd Lake pleaded guilty Wednesday to fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct justice. He is scheduled for sentencing in November.
More than two dozen people have pleaded guilty in a yearslong investigation into the scheme that involved state and county employees in New Jersey and a pharmacy in Louisiana.
According to authorities, the scheme exploited the fact that some state and local government employees had insurance that covered expensive compound medications such as pain, scar, antifungal and libido creams. Reimbursements ran as high as thousands of dollars for a one-month supply.
Conspirators recruited government employees like teachers, police and firefighters to submit claims for prescriptions, based solely on the amount of money the insurance company would pay for them.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Cammalleri, 49, recruited several people and steered them to a doctor who prescribed the expensive medications they didn’t need.
Cammalleri caused nearly $3 million in fraudulent claims to be submitted and received more than $175,000 for arranging the prescriptions, the U.S. attorney’s office said. He also pleaded guilty to seeking to provide false information to a federal agents investigating the scheme.
A message was left Wednesday with an attorney representing Cammalleri.
The overall scheme caused more than $50 million in losses to health benefit programs and insurers, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Among those pleading guilty were several doctors in New Jersey and the CEO of Louisiana-based Central Rexall Drugs.
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