Sentencing guidelines recommended up to 46 months behind bars for Latania Smith-Washington , 50 and Courtney Lewis, 31, but U.
District Judge Wendy Berger sentenced the two Monday to time served in a prosecution where the women helped investigators build cases against four other people tied to Medicare fraud. He said after the sentencing that his clients "don't have a criminal mind," but had been in contact with a man who sold them on an arrangement they learned later was illegal.
Despite its marketing trouble, over five months in the company billed Medicare for 64, shipments of at-home Covid test kits to people enrolled in the vast federal insurance program, according to plea agreements the women signed in March. The change happened because Medicare decided in to pay companies like SWL to send people enrolled in the program up to eight tests for free , but said people had to ask for the tests.
The offer ended in May Instead of collecting requests and sending tests, the plea agreements said SWL made deals with businesses that would send them data on people who supposedly wanted the tests, including beneficiary ID numbers SWL needed to file bills with Medicare. Stone said his clients questioned whether people on the lists had actually asked for the tests and that the companies sent recordings of some phone calls where some people really did ask for tests, but those recordings reflected only a small part of the slew of orders.
SWL paid the companies a flat fee for each beneficiary ID, but only if Medicare paid an SWL billing, which prosecutors said made the payment a kickback for data used in the federal program. The scam ended when federal agents served a search warrant at SWL's office on Spring Park Road and Smith-Washington and Lewis immediately told investigators what they had done and how.
