Ex-Operator of Pharmacy Indicted in Fraud Case
A Dana Point man is facing federal charges that he bilked two insurance companies of $1.5 million by filing fraudulent prescription claims, authorities said Friday.
A grand jury at U.S. District Court in Santa Ana indicted Jean-Marie Lagorce-Gonzales on Wednesday on 20 counts of mail fraud and 17 counts of money laundering. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in federal prison, authorities said.
Lagorce-Gonzales, 54, a citizen of France, operated Time Pharmacy on Tustin Avenue in Santa Ana for about two months in 1997, federal prosecutors said. In early 1998, he notified the California State Board of Pharmacy that he had closed the business. Between mid-1997 and early 1999, authorities said, Lagorce-Gonzales continued billing two insurance companies--Blue Cross-Well Point and Prescription Solutions--for prescriptions he never filled.
“It looks like he was submitting bills roughly once a month,” said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. “One check was sent to him on May 7, 1999, for $27,762.02, and that’s the largest check we have in the indictment. Then there are two for about $2,500. So the checks are all over the road map.”
Authorities believe Lagorce-Gonzales, also known as John Gonzales, may have taken patient information from a pharmacy that had employed him previously. The patients listed in the fraudulent claims had never been served by Time Pharmacy, investigators said.
Lagorce-Gonzales was being held without bail Friday, with arraignment set Feb. 20. A public defender will represent him, Mrozek said.
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