July 28, 2010 Media Contact: Jenn Meale Phone: (850) 245-0150

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TALLAHASSEE, FL - Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that four Miami-Dade County residents are in custody for allegedly defrauding the Florida Medicaid program out of more than $539,000. The defendants are speech pathologists and assistants all employed by The Center for Bilingual Speech and Language Disorders, Inc. in Miami. The investigation is ongoing and more arrests are expected.

“Medicaid fraud and those who commit it steal critical health care dollars from our citizens who actually need medical services,” said Attorney General McCollum. “My Medicaid Fraud Control Unit will continue aggressively pursuing perpetrators to protect these taxpayer-funded resources.”

Investigators with the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit today arrested Elaine Marie Camps, 34, of Miami; Juliane Sardina, 39, of Miami Beach; Mayra Romero, 46, of Miami; and Samara Gabriel Glyn, 27, of Miami, with assistance from the Miami-Dade Police Department.

Working with the Florida Department of Health (DOH), Medicaid Fraud investigators discovered that the defendants conspired to bill the Medicaid program for unsupervised speech therapy with Medicaid recipients, in direct violation of Florida law, DOH regulations and Medicaid program rules. For approximately three and a half years, the company continued to bill the Medicaid program for these services and subsequently was paid nearly $540,000 in Medicaid reimbursements.

Elaine Camps is charged with two counts of grand theft and two counts of Medicaid fraud, both first-degree felonies, and one count of conspiracy to commit Medicaid fraud, a second-degree felony. If convicted of all charges, she could face up to $50,000 in fines and up to 135 years in prison. Juliane Sardina is charged with two counts of grand theft and two counts of Medicaid fraud, both second-degree felonies, and one count of conspiracy to commit Medicaid fraud, a third-degree felony. If convicted of all charges, she could face up to $45,000 in fines and up to 65 years in prison. Mayra Romero is charged with one count of grand theft, a second-degree felony, and one count of conspiracy to commit Medicaid fraud, a third-degree felony. If convicted of all charges, she could face up to $15,000 in fines and up to 20 years in prison. Samara Glyn is charged with one count of Medicaid fraud, a second-degree felony, and one count of grand theft, a third-degree felony. If convicted of all charges, she could face up to $15,000 in fines and up to 20 years in prison.

The defendants were booked into the Miami-Dade County Jail. The case is being prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.