A Tequesta-area man is accused of paying to have patients sent to Reliance Treatment Center in North Palm Beach.

WEST PALM BEACH — A Tequesta-area man is charged with paying nearly a quarter-million dollars in kickbacks for referrals to his treatment centers.



Brian Joseph Mylett, 51, who lives just north of the Palm Beach-Martin line, was booked Friday at the Palm Beach County Jail, charged with 35 felony counts of patient brokering. He left early Saturday after posting $105,000 bail, jail records show.

Patient brokering occurs when substance-abuse treatment centers pay sober homes — where addicts live while getting clean — to steer to them clients with private health insurance. The urine of insured people battling addiction is worth potentially millions of dollars to the centers. Those with addictions may be tested three or more times per week, and even partial reimbursement from insurers can pay $1,500 to $2,000 per sample.

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According to a Palm Beach Gardens Police report dated last Wednesday, Mylett was the co-owner of Reliance Treatment Center, a licensed substance abuse center on U.S. 1 in North Palm Beach.



The county's Sober Homes Task Force had arrested Alexander Vandervert in December 2016 on patient-brokering charges connected to the Saje House, a sober home Vandervert owned. Vandervert later told investigators he received kickbacks of $375 to $400 for each patient he referred to Reliance. Investigators listed 29 checks totaling $54,286. They also listed a $1,275 check that might have been related, the report said.



At least one resident of Saje House said she was permitted to stay rent-free if she attended treatment at Reliance. She also said once she "graduated" from Saje House, Vandervert asked her to lie to Reliance and say she'd relapsed so she could return. She also said Reliance had a "revolving-door" practice that allowed people who'd relapsed to return. As a result, she said, she reported to investigators that people she'd met there had overdosed and died.



The report said two people who worked in the Reliance business office told investigators that numerous operations referred people to Reliance and that Reliance billed for five-day treatment programs when clients actually were treated for only three days.



Owners-operators of six area sober homes told investigators about getting paid to refer people to Reliance. Investigators listed 23 checks totaling $107,733, plus a $5,125 check that possibly was connected, the report said.



And Patrick Norquist told investigators Mylett paid him as much as $25,000 a month to find patients, place them into a sober home owned by Mylett and refer them to Reliance. Police listed checks totaling $78,000 from Mylett to the sober home.

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Another man told investigators he was paid to refer patients to one of two centers in Broward County, and if they couldn't take a person, to refer the client to Reliance. He said the kickbacks totaled $4,000 each per patient. The man said he earned up to $120,000 a year. He said Mylett set up a corporation in Delaware "so nobody could find it in Sunbiz," the state's corporations database.

Mylett's wife, reached Monday, said the family had no comment and referred a reporter to her husband's attorney, Robert Nicholson. He said from Fort Lauderdale that, "Mr .Mylett looks forward to vindicating himself at trial in this matter."