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Santa Clarita Valley Businesswoman Sentenced to Federal Prison

The former owner of Ezcor Medical Supply in Valencia was sentenced Monday to federal prison for defrauding the Medicare and Medi-Cal programs out of more than $1.9 million in bogus reimbursements. Sylvia Walter-Eze, 48, of Stevenson Ranch, was ordered to serve eight years and pay more than $1.9 million in restitution to the government health programs. A federal jury found her guilty in March of four counts of health care fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to pay illegal health care kickbacks. Evidence at trial showed that through Ezcor, a durable medical equipment supply company, Walter-Eze fraudulently billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for equipment that was not medically necessary. She paid illegal kickbacks to patient recruiters in exchange for patient referrals, and kickbacks to physicians for fraudulent prescriptions for medically unnecessary power wheelchairs, according to a press release from the Department of Justice. Between 2007 and 2012, she submitted $3.5 million in fraudulent claims and she received $1.9 million in reimbursements, the Justice Department said. The case was investigated by the FBI, Department of Health & Human Services and the California Department of Justice.

Joel Russel
Joel Russel
Joel Russell joined the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2006 as a reporter. He transferred to sister publication San Fernando Valley Business Journal in 2012 as managing editor. Since he assumed the position of editor in 2015, the Business Journal has been recognized four times as the best small-circulation tabloid business publication in the country by the Alliance of Area Business Publishers. Previously, he worked as senior editor at Hispanic Business magazine and editor of Business Mexico.

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