Andrew Barrett of New City was indicted this morning in federal court on health care and tax fraud charges.

"instead of using his pharmacist license to provide valid relief to those in need, Andrew Barrett used it as a license to steal from publicly-funded health care programs and then lied about it on his tax returns," stated United States Attorney Loretta Lynch. "Today's indictment makes clear that this Office will hold accountable corrupt pharmacists who seek to enrich themselves at the expense of tax-payer funded programs." Barrett, a licensed pharmacist, operated drug stores in Bronx, Rockland, and Queen.

From his Queens pharmacy, prosecutors allege, Barrett billed Medicare and Medicaid more than $5 million for prescription medications that he never dispensed to patients between January 2011 and December 2012. Then, they argue, he used more than $4 million of that money to buy drugs for his pharmacies in the Bronx and Rockland counties.

Prosecutors also accuse him of siphoning off—for personal expenses—more than $2.5 million from the Bronx and Rockland pharmacy accounts while falsely claiming those funds as business expenses on his personal and corporate tax returns. "Individuals who steal from government programs often take the added risk of committing tax crimes in the process," said Shantelle P. Kitchen, Special Agent-in-Charge, Internal Revenue Service.

Here's the text of the prosecutors' statement:

A twenty-four-count indictment was unsealed this morning in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging Andrew Barrett, a licensed pharmacist, with health care fraud, filing false claims, unlawful monetary transactions, filing false personal tax returns, and the filing of and assisting in the preparation of false corporate tax returns.1 Barrett will be arraigned at 2:00 pm today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven M. Gold at the U. S. Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York.

The charges were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Diego Rodriguez, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), Scott Lampert, Special Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), and Shantelle P. Kitchen, Special Agent-in-Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, New York (IRS-CI). "As alleged in the indictment, instead of using his pharmacist license to provide valid relief to those in need, Andrew Barrett used it as a license to steal from publicly-funded health care programs and then lied about it on his tax returns," stated United States Attorney Lynch. "Today's indictment makes clear that this Office will hold accountable corrupt pharmacists who seek to enrich themselves at the expense of tax-payer funded programs."