U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Philip Sellinger announced Jan. 5 that two North Jersey brothers were sentenced for their roles in a multimillion-dollar scheme that defrauded public and private health benefits programs.

John Cuffari, 61, of Cedar Grove, and Christopher Cuffari, 57, of Little Falls, each previously pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

The brothers had worked as sales representatives for marketing companies and compounding pharmacies. The scheme was based around the fact that certain insurance plans paid exorbitant reimbursement rates for compound medications, which are specialty medications mixed by a pharmacist to meet the specific medical needs of a patient — such as scar creams, wound creams, and metabolic supplements and vitamins.

“Between November 2014 and July 2016, John Cuffari participated in a conspiracy that involved the submission of fraudulent prescriptions for compounded medications to public and private insurance plans,” according to case documents and court statements released by prosecutors. “Christopher Cuffari participated in the conspiracy between November 2014 and September 2017.”

Prosecutors alleged the brothers targeted individuals who had insurance plans that covered these compound medications.

“They then convinced those individuals to obtain prescriptions for compounded medications, regardless of medical necessity, often by providing them with cash payments,” according to prosecutors. “In order to obtain prescriptions for compounded medications for some of the recruited individuals, the defendants caused payments to be made to a New Jersey-based physician.”

Christopher Cuffari was sentenced Jan. 3 to 27 months in prison for his role in the defrauding benefits programs of $7.89 million for the billing of these medically unnecessary prescriptions. The next day, Jan. 4, his brother, John Cuffari, was sentenced to 17 months in prison for his role in defrauding the benefits program of at least $5.3 million.

They were both also sentenced to three years of supervised release.

“By their own admission, these defendants bilked publicly and privately funded insurance plans of millions of dollars in fraudulent reimbursements for compounded medications,” said Sellinger. “Working with our partners, we will prosecute those who take advantage of our health care system to generate illicit income.”

“Fraud creates tougher regulations and policies from government agencies and insurance companies to prevent it from taking place,” said FBI-Newark Special Agent in Charge James Dennehy. “That trickles down to patients who have a much harder time getting the health care they may desperately need. The Cuffari brothers are just a small cog in a tremendously frustrating wheel of criminals, but we won’t be deterred from bringing every one of them to justice.”