Queens pharmacy owner charged in alleged $31M Medicaid drugs fraud

The owner of two Queens pharmacies was arrested on charges he bilked Medicaid in a $31 million drug-buyback scheme involving HIV prescriptions, the New York attorney general’s office said on Wednesday.

Miguel Baron allegedly prescribed HIV meds to patients insured through Medicaid out of Guardiola Pharmacy and Baron Specialty Pharmacy in Jackson Heights, the AG’s office said in a statement.

Baron then either convinced customers to sell their pills back to him, so he could prescribe them again, or filled their prescriptions with cheaper meds he got on the black market, the attorney general’s office said.

The scheme allegedly netted Baron $31 million in stolen funds from Medicaid and the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program.

“Pharmacy owners who exploit patients with medication buyback schemes are putting New Yorkers’ health at serious risk,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.

James added, “My office will continue to protect patients, shut down Medicaid fraud schemes, and hold criminals accountable to ensure that our tax dollars are not lining scammers’ pockets.”

Baron could not be reached for comment and did not have an attorney listed in court documents.

Baron laundered the funds he got from his Medicaid scheme through shell companies that he and his associates used to fund construction projects, purchase condos in Miami and buy luxury cars and World Cup tickets, according to the attorney general’s office.

Baron faces 24 charges, including grand larceny, healthcare fraud and money laundering, according to an indictment that was filed in a New York State Supreme Court in Queens in September and unsealed Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, the state attorney general brought a civil asset forfeiture case against Baron to seize the property he allegedly purchased with stolen Medicaid funds. The attorney general’s office seeks more than $95 million in damages.

Prosecutors have cracked down on several similar operations in the past. In 2024, a Brooklyn man was sentenced to nine years in prison for selling black market HIV drugs to pharmacies for years.

Another man was extradited from Pakistan by the New York attorney general’s office in 2021 and charged with fraud for allegedly working with multiple coconspirators to buy HIV meds back from Medicaid patients in the Bronx.

Baron was arrested at LaGuardia Airport in June while attempting to flee to Canada, the attorney general’s office said.