Richard B. White and Youngstown Osteopathic Hospital

Found Guilty of Medicare Fraud, Money Laundering, and Wire Fraud

U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
Northern District of Ohio

United States Attorney
James C. Lynch
Assistant U.S. Attorney
(216) 622-3846

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 6, 2004

Gregory A. White, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, today announced that Raul Sanchez DeVarona was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Patricia A. Gaughan to 15 months imprisonment following his entering a plea of guilty last October to the charge of conspiracy to defraud the Federal Medicare Program.  DeVarona, an attorney in Coral Gables, Florida, testified for the government in a  two week trial which resulted in 14 guilty verdicts against Richard B. White involving Medicare Fraud, Money Laundering, and Wire Fraud on March 30, 2004.  At the same trial, a second defendant, Michael A. Suhadolnik, was convicted on one count of Wire Fraud.   

DeVarona, age 40, resides at 537 Lorenzo Avenue, Coral Gables, Florida.  He also was ordered to make restitution to the federal government of $2.4 million.  As part of the plea agreement, DeVarona agreed to surrender his license to practice law.  He was ordered to report to the United States Marshal's Service on June 23, 2004, to begin his term of incarceration.   

DeVarona's plea of guilty stemmed from an indictment which charged that in 1996 White and his co-defendants entered into a conspiracy and scheme to defraud the government by creating a network of Medicare provider companies associated with Youngstown Osteopathic Hospital (YOH).  The network, designed by White, was supposed to benefit the hospital, but evidence at trial showed that they also produced profits to the defendants through inflated costs charged to Medicare.  

The scheme extended to five clinics in Florida established by White as a part of the "network."  The Florida clinics were operated by DeVarona.  

Sentencing for the defendants White and Suhadolnik is scheduled for June 29, 2004.  Two other co-defendants, MaryAnn Barnett and Patricia Macejko, both of Canfield, Ohio, are awaiting a separate trial. 

The case was prosecuted for the United States Attorney's Office by Assistant U.S. Attorney James C. Lynch.  The four year investigation was conducted by agents of the Office of Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services, Cleveland, Ohio, the Criminal Investigation, IRS, Youngstown, Ohio, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Youngstown, Ohio.