Woman pleads guilty to health care fraud

A Filipino woman yesterday pled guilty to a health care fraud charge before the U.S. District Court after she opted to waive a grand jury indictment on a case involving government health insurance funds.

Dinnalyn Silvino was charged along with her husband, Emmanuel, following a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on their company, MegaPlus International Inc. which provides physical therapy services in the CNMI.

Judge Alex R. Munson approved the plea agreement she entered into late last week with federal prosecutors, led by U.S. Assistant Attorney Kevin A. Seely, immediately after she signed the waiver on her indictment in the court.

Under the deal, Ms. Silvino agreed to cooperate with the Attorney’s Office, the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies and to serve as state witness in the prosecution of the fraud case.

In exchange for her plea, she would receive minimum penalty for the charge that usually carries a maximum 10 years imprisonment, a fine of not more than $250,000 and a three-year supervised release after serving time in jail if convicted by the jury.

Mr. Seely recommended a minimum incarceration for Ms. Silvino that the court will determine as punishment for the felony offense based on any “substantial assistance” to the prosecution that the accused had promised to provide.

The federal government also agreed not to criminally prosecute her for any other offenses which are non-violent in nature, either in the CNMI or on Guam, that occurred prior to the plea agreement.

Ms. Silvino, on the other hand, will be required to pay whatever fine and restitution associated with the case, and has agreed to forfeit assets and properties in order to meet her financial obligations to the court.
Judge Munson set her sentencing date on July 25 after the U.S. Probation Office comes up with its report on Ms. Silvino. She remains free on a bail of $10,000 unsecured bond.

The information on the charge sheet revealed that from June 1997 to December 1999, the defendant aided and abetted in the scheme to defraud CNMI government health insurance by falsifying documents, such as prescriptions and doctors’ referral program, to collect payment on alleged physical therapy services rendered to beneficiaries of the health program.

The Silvino couple originally were facing 12 counts of the health care fraud after they were arrested by FBI agents late last month, but the wife pled only to one count and the prosecution dropped the rest of the charges.

Mr. Silvino will still be indicted in the court by next week or so if there is no agreement for a guilty plea, according to Mr. Seely.

The FBI had pursued the case after the CNMI public auditor’s office discovered fraudulent documents submitted by MegaPlus to claim government insurance payment.

After their arrest, the couple, who are residents of the Commonwealth, blamed an administrative assistant of the company for falsifying the papers with amounts ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. A sister of Ms. Silvino, she died early this year of lupus.