A Manhattan pharmacist scammed millions of dollars from New York State’s Medicaid program, the state attorney general’s office said Thursday.
Hin T. Wong was collared for allegedly using her drug store — NY Pharmacy, Inc., on Walker and Baxter Streets in Chinatown — to carry out the scheme.
Wong, 49, paid kickbacks to undercover agents, who were posing as Medicaid recipients, for HIV scripts at her sketchy shop, AG Eric Schneiderman alleged in a statement.
Wong and her pharmacy also charged Medicaid more than $60,000, and received that amount, for prescription refills that the store “either did not dispense or were predicated on the payment of a kickback,” prosecutors said.
Schneiderman’s office also filed a civil asset forfeiture lawsuit against Wong for $11 million in damages.
The AG maintains that from January 2014 to July 2017, Wong received $15 million in Medicaid and private insurance reimbursements for meds — but only paid some $9 million for drugs.
This means there was a “substantial inventory shortfall, amounting to more than $6 million,” the civil suit claims.
While Wong was pocketing this money, she “made numerous lavish personal purchases of goods and services.”
Her credit card records indicate that since May 2016, Wong dropped $80,000, buying designer duds from Prada, Miu Miu and Louis Vuitton. She also paid for travel to Martha’s Vineyard and for chic furniture.
She spent another $1,000 on a plastic surgeon in June, court papers charge.
Prosecutors have charged Wong with third-degree grand larceny, and a medical assistance provider prohibited practices count for the alleged kickbacks.
She pleaded not guilty and is being held on $500,000 bail, officials said. Contact information for her lawyer was not immediately available.