Source: New York Post
A crooked Queens pharmacist reportedly ran a $31 million Medicaid buyback scheme — pocketing millions off black-market HIV drugs to fund a lavish lifestyle, prosecutors said Thursday. Miguel Baron, 62, operated the massive, multi-year fraud scheme out of his two Jackson Heights storefronts, Guardiola Pharmacy and Baron Specialty Pharmacy, and blew the illegally earned cash on luxury properties and cars and World Cup tickets, according to the New York Attorney General’s Office. From January 2023 to April 2026, Baron paid cash kickbacks to Medicaid patients who filled their HIV medication prescriptions at his stores in exchange for black market drugs and bought others’ prescriptions for pennies on the dollar before re-billing Medicaid full price, the AG alleged.
