A staffing company employee and patient recruiter for several Miami-area home health agencies was convicted Friday for his role in a fraud and kickback scheme that resulted in the submission of millions of dollars in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, the US Department of Justice announced.

Carlos Rodriguez Nerey, 45, of Miami, was convicted Friday of one count of conspiracy to defraud the US and pay and receive healthcare kickbacks and one count of receiving healthcare kickbacks.

Nerey claimed to work at a staffing company called Sweet Life Staffing Inc. but was in fact a patient recruiter for D&D&D Home Health Inc. and Mercy Home Care Inc., two fraudulent home healthcare agencies in Miami, the Department of Justice reported.  Evidence at trial demonstrated that Nerey worked for a number of fraudulent home healthcare companies in Miami before he began accepting kickbacks from D&D&D and Mercy.  The defendant created a shell company for the purpose of accepting kickbacks from Mercy and D&D&D and received approximately $250,000 as a result of his role in the scheme, according to the Department of Justice.     

The evidence introduced at trial showed that Medicare paid more than $2 million to D&D&D and Mercy for those claims.