Judge sends Medicare offender to prison for 50 years
Posted almost 14 years ago by Stanley F Whittaker
A judge socked a convicted Miami healthcare executive with a 50-year prison sentence, longest ever imposed for Medicare fraud offender.
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com
New York transplant Lawrence Duran once ran a multimillion-dollar mental health company in Miami, lobbied Congress for his industry and tooled around town in a Maserati.
His next stop: federal prison — likely for the rest of his life.
On Friday, a federal judge slammed Duran, 49, with a 50-year prison sentence for orchestrating a staggering $205 million scam at his Miami-based chain of mental health clinics.
The sentence may end up being the longest prison term ever imposed on someone convicted of Medicare fraud.
Duran’s lawyer, Lawrence Metsch, had urged the judge to be realistic and give him a sentence between 20 and 25 years, arguing that 50 years means a “death sentence because he would die in prison.”