Trump commutes sentence of prominent South Florida doctor convicted of Medicare fraud
An imprisoned South Florida eye doctor who falsely billed millions of dollars to Medicare and is a close friend of a Democratic U.S. senator is expected to be released after President Donald Trump commuted his 17-year sentence among numerous clemency decisions issued early Wednesday before leaving office.
Dr. Salomon Melgen, a native of the Dominican Republic who operated a lucrative ophthalmology practice in Palm Beach County, was convicted of Medicare fraud almost four years ago, before he stood trial with Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, in a separate corruption case that ended with a hung jury.
During the corruption trial, prosecutors accused Menendez of pressuring Medicare officials to change the agency’s billing practices after it concluded that Melgen overcharged the taxpayer-funded program while lavishing gifts on his friend for favors. But the federal jury was deadlocked on bribery and other counts, and prosecutors did not retry the physician and politician.
Thanks to Trump’s commutation, Melgen, 66, can be released as early as Wednesday from the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami after serving about four years behind bars. Though the president’s decision doesn’t erase Melgen’s felony conviction, it was extraordinary news for the once-wealthy South Florida ophthalmologist, who had never been a campaign donor to the Republican Party.
In a statement issued by his clemency attorney, Melgen said he was “extremely grateful to President Trump for commuting my sentence and recognizing the injustice I have endured.”
According to a White House statement, Melgen’s clemency petition was supported by Menendez, U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, and numerous members of Brigade 2506, a Cuban exile group, along with friends, family, and former employees and patients. “Numerous patients and friends testify to his generosity in treating all patients, especially those unable to pay or unable to afford healthcare insurance,” the statement said.
Members of Brigade 2506, consisting of veterans of the ill-fated 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow the government of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, sent a letter to Trump in support of Melgen’s release from prison.
“We believe that Dr. Melgen was maliciously prosecuted due to his close friendship to Cuban-American leaders, particularly Senator Robert Menendez, who vocally and vigorously opposed the Obama Administration’s dangerous ‘Iran Deal,’ and ‘Cuba normalization,’ ‘’ said the brigade’s Aug. 10, 2020, letter, which was signed by numerous members.
“This case presents a compelling opportunity for you to exercise the extraordinary power of your office by granting a pardon or similar relief to Dr. Melgen,” the letter stated. “We know that you are a man of extraordinary compassion and justice.”
Despite Trump’s loss to Democrat Joe Biden in November’s presidential election, the Cuban-American vote lifted Trump to victory in the state of Florida.
In the statement issued by his Miami clemency attorney, Melgen said he paid more than $25 million to the government, including a refund of $11 million to the taxpayer-funded Medicare program for the elderly, and surrendered his medical license while serving his prison term in “near isolation” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After his release, Melgen plans to live in West Palm Beach with his wife, Flor, who has cancer.
His clemency attorney, Samuel Stern, said in the statement that “President Trump’s actions today end a serious miscarriage of justice.” He also said that before his arrest, Melgen was a “renowned and highly specialized retinal surgeon,“ and that he “maintains his innocence.”
In April 2017, Melgen was convicted of stealing $73 million from Medicare by persuading elderly patients to undergo excruciating tests and treatments they didn’t need for diseases they didn’t have. His defense attorneys, Kirk Ogrosky and Matthew Menchel, lost an appeal of his conviction last July and were proceeding with a final bid for relief before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Melgen was found guilty of 67 counts, including healthcare fraud, submitting false claims and falsifying records in patients’ files. Prosecutors showed that between 2008 and 2013, he became the nation’s highest-paid Medicare doctor, building his practice by giving elderly patients unnecessary eye injections and laser blasts on their retinas.
In addition to prison time, Melgen was also ordered to pay $42.6 million in restitution to Medicare.
The sentencing came after prosecutors argued he stole $136 million but his attorneys insisted the proven total was $64,000. U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra said the evidence showed the theft was at least $73 million.
Marra could have given the Harvard-trained, Dominican-born physician a life sentence. Prosecutors had been seeking 30 years. Defense attorneys sought less than 10 years.
Melgen was placed in custody without a bond after his arrest on Medicare fraud charges in April 2015. But a magistrate judge eventually approved an $18 million bond package, allowing his release before trial.
During Melgen’s two-month Medicare fraud trial, prosecutors argued Melgen frequently billed Medicare for tests and treatment on the fake eyes of one-eyed patients, as if they were real. Prosecutors also pointed to tests that should take five minutes or more, yet were done in seconds, making them useless for diagnosis, but enabling Melgen to bill Medicare up to several hundred dollars each, for as many as 100 patients a day.
The doctor pocketed millions more by splitting single-use vials of an expensive eye drug into four doses — there was enough extra medicine in each — and billing the government separately for each injection, prosecutors said. Melgen’s attorneys argued that this cost the government no extra money, as Medicare would have purchased four vials if he had followed the instructions.
Melgen became politically active in 1997, after treating Florida Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles, who appointed him to a state board.
He hosted Democratic fundraisers at his 6,500-square-foot North Palm Beach home, and eventually became friends with Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat. Melgen paid for trips that he and the senator took to France and to the doctor’s home at a Dominican resort. Menendez reimbursed Melgen $58,500 after the trips became public knowledge.
But after four years in prison and millions repaid to the U.S. government, Melgen is no longer a wealthy physician. The Justice Department forfeited almost all of his assets.
Information from The Associated Press was used to supplement this story.
This story was originally published January 20, 2021 at 7:36 AM with the headline "Trump commutes sentence of prominent South Florida doctor convicted of Medicare fraud."
