A federal grand jury has indicted a Connecticut couple for allegedly stealing millions of dollars from Curry Management Corp. of Greenburgh.
Anthony and Patricia Riccardi of New Canaan were accused of conspiracy, bank fraud and wire fraud in an indictment filed March 24 in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
The indictment does not say how much they allegedly stole, but a probable cause affidavit filed in July puts the losses at $17.9 million.
“Anyone who”™s ever dealt with the IRS knows that the U.S. government is far from perfect in crunching numbers,” Anthony Riccardi’s attorney, Michael Lambert, said in an email. “We have hired a professional, experienced, and highly skilled forensic accounting team to get to the bottom of these allegations, and look forward to providing a vigorous defense.”
The Riccardis ran Employee Benefit Solutions, a Wilton, Connecticut company that managed employee medical claims for Curry, an auto dealership group with 15 stores and 750 employees.
Twice a month, Employee Benefit Solutions would submit a ledger to Curry showing payments that were to be made to doctors and other health care providers. Curry would then wire the total amount to EBS.
But many of the medical bills were false, according to the government. From 2015 to 2018, EBS allegedly submitted $26 million in employee health care claims but paid the health care providers $8.1 million.
For instance, EBS submitted $5.6 million in claims from a pharmacy network that was actually owed $2.5 million, according to court records.
The Riccardis allegedly concealed the scheme by fabricating bank statements and images of checks, according to the government. They kept the scheme going by applying for bank loans to finance billing software but used the funds to pay health care claims.
Anthony Riccardi was also charged with aggravated identity theft for allegedly forging the name of Curry”™s chief financial officer on a fraudulent contract to obtain funds from a financing firm.
The Riccardis were arrested in July and released on personal recognizance bonds: $1 million for Anthony and $500,000 for Patricia.
Curry Management sued the Riccardis and EBS last June. They did not respond to the charges, according to court records, and certificates of default were issued.
Assistant prosecutor Nicholas S. Bradley is handling the criminal case for the government.
