Two men have pleaded guilty to defrauding New Jersey and health insurers out of $25 million by submitting claims for unneeded prescriptions.
Matthew Tedesco, of Linwood, and Robert Bessey, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
Authorities say they used a network of recruiters, doctors and state and local employees to get reimbursed for phony prescriptions and expensive and medically unnecessary compounded medications.
Prosecutors say Tedesco, a pharmaceutical sales representative, Bessey and others persuaded people to get the drugs from an unnamed out-of-state pharmacy.
That included recruiting public employees covered by state and local health benefits to obtain the drugs without being evaluated by a doctor.
Prosecutors say the pharmacies then paid kickbacks.
Tedesco admitted receiving more than $11 million and Bessey nearly $500,000. They both must forfeit that money.
