Attorney General: State Employees Took $10.9M In Taxpayer Money In Drug Kickback Scheme
HARTFORD, CT — Three years ago, when state Comptroller Kevin Lembo saw the cost of compound pharmaceuticals skyrocketing, he alerted Attorney General George Jepsen whose office filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a former Correction officer, his ex-wife, 11 other state employees, and a Florida-based company at the center of an alleged pyramid scheme.
Assured Rx, the Florida-based compounding company named as the lead defendant, used Nicholas Maulucci, a retired Correction Officer from Simsbury, and his ex-wife, Lisette Maulucci — also known as Lisette Martinez — to recruit state employees and retirees to use and market compound medications, according to the complaint.
The complaint served Tuesday states that the Mauluccis received a total of $2.65 million in compensation for their role in the scheme, which cost Connecticut taxpayers $10.9 million. The Mauluccis in turn used a portion of those funds to pay kickbacks to the other individuals they recruited into the scheme.
At the moment a total of 11 current and former state employees, mostly from the Correction Department, are also named as defendants in the complaint. Each of the employees was paid between $12,000 and up to $47,000 in kickbacks to purchase the compound drugs from Assured RX through the state’s Pharmacy Benefit Plan.
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