Acting U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that GEOFFREY RICKETTS, age 48, and SAMUEL KIM, age 42, both of Porter Ranch, California, were sentenced today after previously pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon sentenced GEOFFREY RICKETTS to to 46 months imprisonment.  SAMUEL KIM was sentenced to 25 months imprisonment.  In addition, GEOFFREY RICKETTS and SAMUEL KIM owe restitution in the amount of $1,338,210 and $988,593 respectively.

GEOFFREY RICKETTS, SAMUEL KIM, along with co-defendants MARLA RICKETTS and SUNYUP KIM were indicted on June 11, 2015, for their direction of a $38 million fraud scheme centering around the distribution of "talking glucose meters" that were not medically needed and were often not even requested.  The defendants operated Care Concepts, LLC, which was based in Metairie and Choice Home Medical Equipment and Supplies (Choice), which was based in Chatsworth, California.  According to court documents, the defendants paid kickbacks to workers at call centers in California and South Carolina, from which operators would cold-call Medicare recipients to convince them to accept talking glucose meters and related supplies.  From 2007 through 2015, the defendants caused thousands of claims to be submitted to Medicare through Care Concepts and Choice, virtually all of which were fraudulent.

MARLA RICKETTS pleaded guilty on January 5, 2017, to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $39,880.46 in restitution.

SUNYUP KIM pleaded guilty on September 7, 2017, to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and was sentenced to twelve months and one day imprisonment, followed by two years of supervised release.  Additionally, KIM was ordered to pay $93,927 in restitution.

Acting U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Inspector General for the United States Department of Health and Human Services for investigating this matter.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patrice Harris Sullivan and Jordan Ginsberg were in charge of the prosecution.