Jose Davila Nunez, 51, of Miami, was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison to be followed by three years of supervised release for Medicaid fraud. Davila was also ordered to pay $3,869,703 in restitution.
Davila pled guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud on June 14.
According to the court record, to include the agreed upon factual proffer, Davila and his co-conspirators opened a mental health clinic called New Behavior Health Direction, Incorporated (New Behavior) located in Hialeah Gardens, Fla. and installed a nominee owner.
Between April 2019 and September 2020, Davila and his co-conspirators submitted $3,869,703 in false claims to Medicaid for psychosocial rehabilitation services, a type of mental health counselling designed to help people with depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders.
In September 2020, the nominee owner helped withdraw the fraud proceeds, gave some of that money to Davila, and then fled to Cuba.
Davila’s company, Max Medical Consulting Services, Incorporated of Miami, Fla., received approximately $500,000 in fraud proceeds from New Behavior.
At the sentencing hearing, Davila was also held accountable for an additional $2,617,992 related to Davila and his co-conspirator’s conduct in paying illegal bribes to patients between November 2018 and December 2022 in exchange for PSR services at three other Miami clinics.
Davila Medical Center, Incorporated, Advanced Community Wellness Center, and Larkin Behavior Health, Incorporated are those three clinics.
The U.S. government seized approximately $1.7 million in cash related to New Behavior’s bank accounts.
