DOJ cracks down on Medicaid fraud scheme as big as Solyndra

Justice Department investigators unsealed the indictment of 48 people charged with participating in a $500 million Medicaid fraud scheme that consisted of buying prescription drugs from Medicaid recipients and then repackaging them for sale to pharmacies and other distributors.

The fraudsters wanted expensive drugs, cheap, so they turned to Medicaid beneficiaries receiving treatment for AIDS, mental illnesses, and chronic pain. The Medicaid recipients then filled their prescriptions at taxpayer expense and funneled the medication to low-level drug dealers in the Medicaid fraud network.