Farmington man pleads guilty to Medicaid fraud
Authorities say Cory Werito used his medical transportation company to defraud Medicaid of nearly $2 million
FARMINGTON — A Farmington man who owned a company that provided medical transportation for Arizona Medicaid recipients pleaded guilty on Thursday to one charge of health care fraud in federal court in Albuquerque.
Cory Werito, 33, of Farmington, was arrested in June on nine counts of health care fraud, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. He also faced an aggravated structuring charge.
He and co-defendant, Rosita Toledo, 47, of Kirtland, allegedly defrauded the federal Medicaid program of almost $2 million through their medical transport company, CW Transport.
CW Transport provided non-emergency medical transportation for Arizona Medicaid recipients and was funded by reimbursement payments through a health care benefit program, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.
Between 2011 and 2013, the company submitted more than 18,760 claims for reimbursement, according to the release. The majority of those claims were allegedly false or substantially false and fraudulent, the DOJ claims.
Werito, who owned CW Transport, pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud on Thursday. Toledo pleaded not guilty.
Werito's attorney, Darrell Allen, said the other eight counts were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
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Allen said the aggravated currency structuring charge was also dismissed. The charge stemmed from allegations that Werito withdrew a total of $800,000 from bank accounts between August 2011 and July 2013, but withdrew less than $10,000 at a time to avoid filing currency transaction reports.
While the other charges were dismissed, they will likely be taken into account during the sentencing hearing, which has not been scheduled.
Werito faces up to 10 years in federal prison and could be order to pay as much $1.2 million in restitution.
A trial date for Toledo has not yet been scheduled.
Hannah Grover covers government for The Daily Times. She can be reached at 505-564-4652.