Hamptons property owner accused of Medicaid fraud
NEW YORK - NEW YORK (AP) — Nineteen people were charged Thursday with defrauding Medicaid, including one who owns properties in Long Island's pricey Hamptons and another who owns two Manhattan buildings.
Also indicted in the case investigators dubbed "Operation Free Ride" was an art instructor with $1 million in the bank, prosecutors said.
The defendants collected benefits totaling more than $350,000, while none qualified for the government health program, said Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau.
To be eligible for Medicaid in New York, a single adult must earn no more than $10,830 and possess assets worth less than $13,800. A couple with two children must have income under $33,075 and assets worth less than $26,130.
Another defendant, Steven Colucci, claimed he earned $5,000 a year. But Assistant District Attorney Marcy Chelmow said Colucci lives in a rent-stabilized Manhattan apartment while earning income from his two waterfront properties in the Hamptons, including one in Westhampton Beach that he rented during a summer for $65,000.
Colucci received about $16,000 in public health insurance benefits between 2005 and 2008.
A third defendant, Diana Downing, claimed she managed a Manhattan building in exchange for free rent. In fact, prosecutors said, she owns that Upper East Side building as well as an adjacent one and gets rental income from both.
Downing and members of her household received more than $38,000 in public health insurance benefits between 2005 and 2008.
The art instructor, Brian Bomeisler, said he earned $2,200 a month freelancing. According to prosecutors, he is well-known for teaching art seminars, charging up to $1,400 per person.
He owns two apartments in lower Manhattan, each worth over $1 million, and in 2007 deposited at least $1 million in his bank account, prosecutors said. Bomeisler and his household received about $37,000 in public health benefits between 2002 and 2008.
To get Medicaid benefits, prosecutors say, the 19 concealed or misrepresented their places of residence, income or assets — or all three. Charges against them included welfare fraud, grand larceny, offering a false instrument for filing and making a punishable false written statement.
If convicted, Bomeisler, Colucci and Downing each face up to seven years in prison, and the others possibly more.
At their arraignment Thursday, each of the 19 pleaded not guilty and were released without bail.
Attorneys for Bomeisler and Colucci did not immediately return calls for comment. A number for Downing or her attorney was not available.
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