Atlanta Pharmacy Owners Sentenced To Prison In $4M WIC Scheme

Atlanta GA

20 November, 2020

12:03 PM

Description

ATLANTA — Three owners and operators of a pharmacy in Atlanta's Bankhead neighborhood were sentenced to jail Friday for operating a $4 million fraud scheme in which federal prosecutors say they bought WIC vouchers from low-income recipients and sought to be reimbursed, the U.S. Attorney announced. Atlanta residents Pauline M. Badiki, 56, and Ferdinand Mediko, 58, were sentenced to more than four years in prison and Monica Mediko, 53, Atlanta, was sentenced to three years in prison by a judge for their role in the scheme, authorities announced. Badiki and Ferdinand Mediko are siblings and owned the Poly-Plex Pharmacy while Monica Mediko, who is Mediko's wife, worked at the pharmacy as a technician, the U.S. Attorney said. From 2009 until about 2013, the three bought WIC vouchers from low-income mothers at a discounted price off the face value instead of providing baby formula and the food that are intended to be provided to recipients through the vouchers, the US. Attorney said. After buying the vouchers, the three defendants deposited them into their bank account as if they had provided the food and formula to the recipients as intended, authorities said. According to prosecutors, the three defendants deposited tens of thousands of the WIC vouchers that resulted in about $6.5 million in reimbursements from the federal government. Authorities said that the dollar amount far surpassed that of larger big-box grocery stores located nearby. Of the $6.5 million, more than $4 million in the vouchers were found to be fraudulent and did not represent the pharmacy's actual inventory of food and formula at the time, the U.S. Attorney said. The WIC program sends vouchers to recipients who can then exchange the vouchers for healthy foods listed on the vouchers. "The defendants abused a program intended to assist those most in need and diverted public funds to satisfy their own greed," U.S. Attorney Byung J. "BJay" Pak said in a news release. "Vendors who buy WIC vouchers abuse the trust placed in them to serve pregnant woman and young children, and they will be shut down and prosecuted." In addition to the prison term, each of the defendants were sentenced to two years of supervised release and a special assessment of $3,700. Each defendant will also be ordered to pay restitution which will be determined at a later date. The defendants were convicted at trial on December 10, 2019 of wire fraud conspiracy and 12 counts each of wire fraud, theft of government funds, and WIC fraud, according to a news release. "This investigation and prosecution should send a strong zero-tolerance message to those individuals engaged in the practice of defrauding the taxpayer funded WIC program," Jason Williams, special agent-in-charge, USDA-Office of Inspector General said in the news release. "It should also serve as a warning to all stores that participate in the WIC program as vendors that fraud and trafficking (purchasing those benefits for cash) will be vigorously investigated and prosecuted by the USDA-OIG, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and all its federal, state, and local partners that have a stake in ensuring that fraud is eliminated from taxpayer-funded programs."