A Ferrari, Land Rover and home bought after a $187 million Florida fraud can be yours
If you want to live like you just made $187 million, you can buy the Land Rover, Ferrari and four-bedroom brick house that Minal Patel bought when he made his $187 million. You’ll be able to do that because Patel made that money in a Medicare fraud he ran with Florida companies.
The cars, house and over $31 million in cash were seized in forfeiture as property gained via the criminal act. That means the cars and house likely will be for sale soon, either by real estate listing or auction.
Patel, 44, won’t be needing them anyway. He’ll have a new federally provided residence in prison during his 27-year sentence.
In West Palm Beach federal court, Patel was convicted of healthcare fraud, attempt and conspiracy to commit mail fraud, illegal remunerations involving federal healthcare plans and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Patel ran his scheme from July 2016 through August 2019 using his company LabSolutions in partnership with companies in Palm Beach and Bay counties.
Patel’s scheme worked like a normal Medicare fraud — kickbacks to other parties for Medicare beneficiaries in whose name you bill the program for fraudulent costs — but Patel kicked it up a notch with expensive genetic testing for cancer. This allowed LabSolutions to submit more than $463 million in claims to Medicare.
When the U.S. Justice Department announced the conviction of Homestead nurse Elizabeth Hernandez in a $200 healthcare fraud, the department said she led the nation in genetic tests ordered for Medicare beneficiaries, oncologists and geneticists included.
READ MORE: Homestead nurse convicted of $200 million Medicare scheme
Patel’s cut wound up being $187 million. He spent some of the loot.
Patel’s Ferrari Spider and the Land Rover
One of the cars seized in forfeiture is a red 2018 Ferrari 488 Spider, VIN . ZFF80AMA6J0236067. Edmunds puts the value of this Ferrari, if bought from a private party, anywhere from $159,227 (“Rough” condition) to $189,492 (“Outstanding” condition).
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The other car is a 2019 Land Rover Range Rover, VIN SALGW5SE2KA545805.
The house that Medicare fraud bought
On March 27, 2019, Patel bought a four- 4-bedroom, 3 1/2-bathroom, 3,408-square-foot brick house at 1118 Blackshear Dr. in Decatur, Georgia’s Fields of Druid Hills development for $685,000. The 2018-built, two-story building also has a basement.
Because other property bought by Patel had been sold, plunged in value or been mixed with legally gained property, prosecutors asked for and received the forfeiture of the 28,000-square-foot commercial building at 548-552 Ponce De Leon Ave. NE in Atlanta.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Marx Calderon was in charge of the asset forfeiture part of the case, which was prosecuted by Jamie de Boer, Emily Gurskis, Reginald Cuyler, Jr., Katherine Rookard and Patrick Queenan. The case was investivated by the FBI and U.S. Health and Human Services Office of the Investigator General out of each agency’s Miami office.
Correction: An earlier version of the story misstated the length of Minalkumar Patel’s prison sentence.
This story was originally published October 5, 2023 at 4:28 AM.
