John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of
Connecticut, announced that KAKRA GYAMBIBI, 38, of Darnestown, Maryland,
formerly of Connecticut, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A.
Meyer in New Haven to three months of imprisonment, followed by three years of
supervised release, for health care fraud.
According to court documents, statements made in court and
the evidence presented during the trial of her husband, Kwasi Gyambibi,
Advantage Pharmacy was a compounding pharmacy located in Hattiesburg,
Mississippi. As a compounding pharmacy,
Advantage created compound prescription drugs specifically tailored for
individual patients who had a medical need for a compound drug, by mixing
together individual ingredients in the exact strength and dosage prescribed by
the health care provider to meet the unique needs of a patient. One tube of a compound drug cream prepared
and dispensed by Advantage Pharmacy typically cost health care benefit programs
thousands of dollars, and some individual tubes of cream cost more than $11,000
for a one-month supply. Kakra Gyambibi
is a physician who worked as a hospitalist at Stamford Hospital, and Kwasi
Gyambibi acted as, and eventually became, a sales representative for Advantage
Pharmacy.
On January 9, 2019, a grand jury in New Haven returned a
19-count indictment alleging that, in 2014 and 2015, Kwasi and Kakra Gyambibi
engaged in a scheme to defraud the State of Connecticut Pharmacy Benefit Plan,
TRICARE and other health care programs by submitting prescriptions for compound
pharmacy medications prepared and dispensed by Advantage Pharmacy. Although the prescriptions sent to Advantage
Pharmacy contained Kakra Gyambibi’s signature, Kakra Gyambibi did not treat,
examine, or even meet with the patients for whom the prescriptions were
written. Based on these false and
misleading claims, the victim health care programs paid Advantage Pharmacy for
the compound prescription drugs.
Advantage Pharmacy, in tum, paid commissions of between 15 percent to 35
percent to sales representatives, including Kwasi Gyambibi’s close cousin, whom
Kwasi Gyambibi considered his brother.
It is alleged that Kwasi and Kakra Gyambibi also induced the
victim health care programs to pay Advantage Pharmacy more than $292,000 for
their own compound prescription drugs.
The investigation has revealed that this scheme resulted in
more than $1.6 million in losses to the victim health care programs.
On January 18, 2019, Kakra Gyambibi pleaded guilty to one
count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud.
On February 22, 2019, a jury found Kwasi Gyambibi guilty of
two counts of health care fraud related to fraudulent prescriptions for
compound drugs that were submitted to Advantage Pharmacy in March 2015, and
found him not guilty of seven counts of health care fraud. The jury could not reach a verdict on the
other 10 counts in the indictment. Kwasi
Gyambibi awaits sentencing.
Judge Meyer will set a hearing to determine restitution at a
later date. The government is seeking
$1,650,332.35 in restitution.
Kakra Gyambibi, who is released on a $50,000 bond, is
required to report to prison on July 15, 2019.
This investigation has been conducted by New Haven Division
of the FBI. U.S. Attorney Durham thanked
the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Connecticut, the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi, the U.S. Department
of Justice’s Fraud Section, and the Jackson, Mississippi Division of the FBI
for their assistance with the investigation.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys
David J. Sheldon and Christopher W. Schmeisser.
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