Raheel Pervez and his accomplices scraped in their dirty money by paying off hundreds of HIV patients not to fill their prescriptions, all the while billing the social health care program for millions, according to prosecutors
A Bronx pharmacist is facing up to 25 years behind bars for stealing $16 million of New York State’s Medicaid funds by preying on poor HIV patients.
Raheel Pervez and his cronies scraped in their dirty money by paying off hundreds of HIV patients not to fill their prescriptions, all the
while billing the social health care program for millions, prosecutors said.
Pervez, 41, of Dix Hills, N.Y., already pled guilty last month to falsifying documents in a criminal enterprise involving pharmacies across greater New York City, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Monday. Pervez will serve 1-3 years for that charge alone, Schneiderman said.
National HIV/AIDS activists were sickened by the scam.
“He is killing these people,” Jessica Schilling, the operations officer for the National AIDS Treatment Advocacy Project said of Pervez, noting that any extended break from an HIV medication regimen can cause fatal intolerance to the life-saving drugs. “Medication is the only thing standing between people living with HIV and dying from HIV.”