Two men from Connecticut, Ramon Apellaniz and Suhail Aponte, were arrested and charged with health care fraud offenses related to an alleged scheme that defrauded the state’s Medicaid program of over $1.8 million. Apellaniz, 39, of Middletown, and Aponte, 38, of Wethersfield, appeared before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Hartford on Thursday.
Aponte was released on $100,000 bond, while Apellaniz was detained pending a hearing scheduled for next week.
The duo allegedly conspired to submit false claims to the Connecticut Medicaid Program, which provides medical assistance to low-income individuals through the state’s Department of Social Services.
They allegedly billed Medicaid for services related to applied behavior analysis for children with autism spectrum disorder, which were never provided or were falsely reported as having been rendered.
Apellaniz, who had previously operated an unlicensed counseling business, The Gemini Project, LLC, was charged in 2020 for providing non-licensed services and submitting false Medicaid claims, resulting in payments of $909,268 for services that were either not rendered or billed under false pretenses.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison, with 15 months to be served and five years of parole. Apellaniz was released from prison in November 2024.
The investigation also revealed that between November 2021 and December 2024, Apellaniz and Aponte defrauded Medicaid by submitting over $1.8 million in false claims under the auspices of a company called Minds Cornerstone Behavior Therapy Services, which Aponte managed despite not being a licensed provider. Apellaniz, who was imprisoned during this period, allegedly ran the operation under a pseudonym and conspired with Aponte.
The case is ongoing, with authorities examining how some of the defrauded funds were used to pay Apellaniz’s restitution from prior convictions.