South Florida man sentenced to federal prison again for money laundering

A Miami man has been sentenced, again, to federal prison for money laundering while he was on supervised release from a previous federal prison sentence, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Carlos Alberto Padron, 56, of Miami, has been sentenced to a total of 90 months, or seven-and-a-half years, and three years of supervised release. Padron was sentenced to 97 months in his past money laundering case by a federal judge in New York, and he only recently was released, according to court records.

“Padron is a repeat offender who very recently finished a lengthy prison term for money laundering and who went right back to committing crime by conspiring to launder money in 2021 and 2022 while on supervised release,” the prosecutor wrote in Padron’s sentencing memorandum filed in court Monday.

Padron and co-conspirator Ovidio Gonzalez Roche laundered nearly $250,000 in Medicare fraud proceeds between July and August 2022 through two fraudulent medical equipment companies in Pompano Beach, Newtech Medical Supply LLC and Spraig Medical Supplies LLC, according to federal prosecutors.

In 2021, Padron was also involved in laundering more than $2.1 million in Medicare fraud proceeds through two other medical equipment companies, Unlimited Medical Supply in Pembroke Pines and Best Medical Supply in North Fort Myers, federal prosecutors said in a news release Wednesday. He received some of an approximate $260,000 in withdrawals of the fraudulent proceeds through the nominee owner of those two companies.

A judge sentenced Padron Tuesday to 70 months in prison, to be served consecutively with a 20-month sentence he received from another judge in early June for violating his supervised release, prosecutors said.

In the 2022 case, the Pompano Beach companies received about $3.7 million in Medicare claims. According to Padron’s sentencing memorandum, Padron was in direct contact with unnamed “healthcare fraudsters” and was “an essential part” in laundering the money for them.

Law enforcement interviewed doctors who were associated with the claims, who said they did not prescribe the medical equipment and whose patients said they did not need or receive the equipment in the claims, according to Padron’s factual proffer.

A witness who cooperated with law enforcement was introduced to Padron by co-conspirator Gonzalez in July 2022, and Padron asked if he could “move money that was ‘hot’ coming from a medical clinic” and give it back to him, the proffer said. The witness agreed to receiving an 8% payment for moving the money.

The three met at a Starbucks in Miami a few weeks later where Padron gave the witness multiple blank, signed checks from the medical equipment companies and asked the witness to move a total of $250,000 from the company bank accounts and return it to him, minus the witness’s fee, the proffer said.

On five separate “controlled meetings,” the witness returned to Padron and Gonzalez a total of nearly $230,000 in cash from a law-enforcement monitored bank account, the proffer said. The meet-ups and conversations were recorded by the witness and law enforcement.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in June. In Padron’s sentencing memorandum, the prosecutor wrote that Padron’s history and offense “call for a magnification of his punishment.”

Padron was sentenced in New York for his role in a prescription drug diversion scheme between 2011 and 2012, the memo said, and was responsible for a restitution totaling more than $2.6 million. His prison discipline history between 2014 and 2018, the prosecutor wrote, was “troubling and shows a lack of rehabilitation.”

The prosecutor wrote that his history and offense made him “more culpable” than co-conspirator Gonzalez, who was sentenced to 21 months and three years of supervised release in the 2022 conspiracy.

“The Government submits that any discussion of a reasonable and appropriate second federal prison sentence for money laundering should acknowledge that the 97-month federal prison sentence pronounced by a federal judge in New York did not convince Padron to stop money laundering,” the prosecutor wrote in the sentencing memo.

Padron has also been ordered to pay over $2.4 million in restitution, prosecutors said. He is currently held in the federal prison in Miami.