Jose Diego Calero

On May 25, 2012, Jose Calero was sentenced to 2 years in prison and ordered to pay $867,539 in restitution after pleading guilty to charges of health care fraud.

Jose Diego Calero, who is from Colombia, was captured in March 2012 by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Falfurrias, Texas, for alleged illegal entry into the United States.

In August 2009, Calero was indicted on charges of health care fraud, money laundering, and forfeiture. Calero allegedly submitted more than $4.8 million in claims to Medicare for physical and occupational therapy services that either were not prescribed by doctors or were not provided as claimed.

Calero was the Director of Premier Quality Physical Therapy, Inc., (Premier), a Florida-based company that purportedly provided physical therapy and occupational therapy services to Medicare beneficiaries. Investigators believe that from approximately September 2008 to February 2009, Calero caused Premier to submit more than $4.8 million in false claims to Medicare, for which he received more than $2.7 million in payments.

The funds received from Medicare were allegedly deposited into the Premier corporate account and then transferred to the personal accounts of Calero and others.

This case was investigated as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, a coordinated effort by Federal, State, and local law enforcement entities aimed at quickly identifying and prosecuting those alleged to have committed health care fraud.