Medicaid fraudster stuck with 10-year sentence

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - An Indianapolis man who stole millions of tax dollars and bought seven properties and several cars, even fur and leather, was in federal court Thursday trying to get his sentence reduced.

Varnador Sutton set up a phony business and walked away with $3.2 million. From May of 2005 to April of 2007, he billed the Medicaid program over nine million dollars.

Court documents show Medicaid paid Sutton $3.2 million for the alleged services. U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison said he set up a fake counseling company.

Sutton claimed he even had an office at 1060 North Capitol, which happens to be the Stutz Building.

The fake company was called Regenerations. But Sutton's numbers sent up red flags. In January of 2006, he billed for 4,700 counseling sessions.

"If you look at the applications that he made, it would have taken an army of therapists working six days a week, cramming in people right and left in order to do all the counseling sessions that he had charged for," said Morrison.

In 2008, Morrison charged six individuals with close to $8.8 million worth of Medicaid fraud. But believes Varnador Sutton is the tip of the iceberg.

"When you think that a district our size, with our population, lost $8.8 million since 2008, wow," said Morrison.

U.S. District Court Judge Larry McKinney, who chose not to comment on Sutton's case from his office Thursday, was not moved to reduce Sutton's 10-year sentence. In fact, he kept it the same.

There are all sorts of Medicaid scams out there, from phony arthritis kits to liquid food for deceased patients.

Tim Morrison said he has a team of people working on these kinds of investigations all of the time.