Ramon Apellaniz, 39, of Middletown, and Suhail Aponte, 38, of Wethersfield, were arrested on Thursday and charged with health care fraud offenses.
HARTFORD, Conn. — Two men from Connecticut were arrested Thursday and charged with health care fraud offenses connected to an alleged scheme that defrauded the state’s Medicaid program, costing the state’s Department of Social Services more than $1.8 million in losses.
Ramon Apellaniz, 39, of Middletown, and Suhail Aponte, 38, of Wethersfield, both appeared before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Hartford, according to a report from the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
Aponte was released on $100,000 bond. Apellaniz, who is also known as “Kristopher Rockefeller” and “Kris,” was detained pending a hearing that is scheduled for next Thursday.
The Connecticut Medical Assistance Program is administered by the state’s Department of Social Services. It provides medical assistance to low-income individuals. The program’s benefit packages, known as “HUSKY” or “Connecticut Medicaid,” are funded by both the state and the federal government.
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Court documents and statements made there reveal that Apellaniz formerly operated The Gemini Project, LLC., a business based in Newington that offered counseling to people with mental, behavioral and emotional disorders. Connecticut’s public license database notes that Apellaniz is not a licensed provider.
Apellaniz was charged by the state with larceny, health care fraud and identity theft offenses in 2020 after providing services to multiple Medicaid beneficiaries as a non-licensed provider. Gemini billed Medicaid for those services, or for services that were not rendered at all, according to prosecutors.
Medicaid paid Gemini and Apellaniz $909,268 for the false claims. Prosecutors say that Apellaniz pleaded nolo contendere and was sentenced to eight years in prison in Hartford Superior Court on April 17, 2024, execution suspended after 15 months, with five years of parole. Apellaniz was released from prison on Nov. 19, 2024.
Prosecutors also allege that in June 2021, the autism specialist group Minds Cornerstone LLC, officially known as Minds Cornerstone Behavior Therapy Services, was registered with the state. Aponte, who is not a licensed provider, was listed as the operation’s manager and registered agent.
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Staring in November 2021, Apellaniz, Aponte and Minds Cornerstone allegedly defrauded the Connecticut Medicaid Program by submitting false claims for applied behavior analysis services to children with autism spectrum disorder.
Apellaniz does not appear on any of Minds Cornerstone’s Medicaid enrollment forms, has no ownership interest in the operation and has no signatory authority to any of its bank accounts, but prosecutors say he conspired with Aponte and ran the company under a pseudonym. He allegedly did this while imprisoned.
The federal complaints charging Apellaniz and Aponte allege that the two men billed Medicaid for services that were said to have been rendered to patients while company payroll records show that employees were not compensated for the associated services.
Prosecutors say that the corresponding procedure code for behavioral technician services was not billed, and services were purportedly rendered to patients who were really in an impatient hospital. Services were also purportedly rendered when parents of patients and former employees of Minds Cornerstone confirmed later that the services never occurred.
It is alleged that between November 2021 and December 2024, Apellaniz and Aponte submitted or caused to be submitted to Medicaid false claims that amounted to more than $1.8 million in losses to the Connecticut Department of Social Services.
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The investigation is ongoing but indicates that Apellaniz used some of the funds given to Minds Cornerstone to pay some of the restitution he owes because of his previous state prosecution.
Aponte was also employed by the state in the Office of Policy and Management from May 2022 to November 2024.
Both men are charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and health care fraud. Each offense carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.
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Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer and writer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at [email protected].
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