A Waxahachie nurse practitioner was sentenced to 20 years in prison after federal investigators caught his employees in the act of making up more than $52 million in insurance claims for medical services that were never provided, and now prosecutors are trying to get the money back.
Trivikram Reddy, 39, pleaded guilty to the scheme in October 2020 and was sentenced earlier this week.
Reddy operated three medical clinics: Waxahachie Medical, Texas Care Clinics and Vcare Health Services.
On June 3, 2019, special agents from the Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General showed up unannounced at one of his clinics and found several staff members in the process of manufacturing medical records, prosecutors said.
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Some of the employees were hiding and gave false names, according to testimony from an FBI agent.
10 days later, Reddy transferred $43 million to his mother in Mumbai, India, and his wife, mother and child left for India the same day, the agent said.
Reddy soon closed the clinics.
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A judge ordered Reddy to repay the $52 million he stole.
The special agent in charge of HHS OIG’s Dallas office said she is optimistic the money can be recovered even though it was transferred overseas.
“We do have confidence,” said the agent, Miranda Bennett. “We are pursuing those funds.”
She described the investigation as one of the largest of its kind in North Texas.
“It’s a pretty staggering amount of money,” Bennett said.
