Maria Paz Garza was the King Midas of incontinence supplies: she turned diapers into dollars—over two and a half million of them, according to the government’s indictment.
She did it through a scheme that charged Texas Medicaid for diapers and other incontinence supplies that were never provided, or never authorized by physicians, or were more expensive than necessary. Sometimes when supplies were actually delivered, Maria bought them back so that she could sell them to Medicaid all over again. The scam also involved forging physicians’ names, paying illegal kickbacks, and buying patient information such as Medicaid ID numbers for use in submitting fraudulent claims.
Unfortunately for Maria, she got caught, indicted, and convicted. And on June 13 she was sentenced to ten years in prison for the fraud crimes and another two years for aggravated identity theft, to be followed by three years of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay $1.8 million in restitution.
There is no truth to the report that when she completes restitution, her file will be stamped with the palindrome DIAPER REPAID.
The case is United States v. Paz Garza, No. 7:16-cr-00877 (S.D. Tex., sentenced June 13, 2017).
