June 30, 2009
Contact: Thomas E. Murphy
(314) 538-4660
Fairfield Illinois Woman Sentenced for Making False Statements to a Federal Health Care Program
JUN 30  -- (BENTON, IL) - A. Courtney Cox, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced that on June 25, 2009, 
April L. SANTIAGO , 30, of Fairfield, Illinois was sentenced in federal district court in Benton on the misdemeanor charge of making False Statements to a Federal Health Care Program. The district court sentenced 
SANTIAGO  to two years probation. The court also ordered 
SANTIAGO  to pay restitution.
As part of the plea on March 24, 2009, defendant 
SANTIAGO  admitted that she worked from 
July2005 to April 2006 as a Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) with the Norris City Health Care 
Clinic in Norris City, White County, Illinois. 
SANTIAGO  would instruct individuals to come 
to the clinic and complain of ailments that they did not have in order to obtain controlled 
substance prescriptions to which they were not entitled. As a result, Medicaid, a Federal Health 
Care Program, reimbursed the clinic for visits that were not medically necessary and the 
pharmacy for prescriptions to which the patients was not entitled.
On or about December 14, 2005, 
SANTIAGO  instructed a Medicaid patient to falsely claim to 
have a toothache in order to obtain a prescription for the controlled substance, Hydrocodone, a 
ScheduleIII Controlled Substance. 
SANTIAGO  then purchased the Hydrocodone from the 
patient.
 SANTIAGO , while she was working for the clinic, would change and alter 
prescriptions for individuals on Medicaid who received a prescription for regular cough syrup.
She would add "HC" which would change the prescription to a cough syrup containing 
Hydrocodone, which can be a ScheduleControlled Substance. She would then fax the 
prescriptions to the pharmacy or give the altered prescription to the individual patient. 
SANTIAGO  would then purchase back the controlled substance from the individual patient. 
She was charged within one such false statement for December 14, 2005. 
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of 
Inspector General; the Drug Enforcement Administration/Diversion Group; and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The cases were prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Liam Coonan.