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New Canaan Man Sentenced to One Year in Prison for Health Care Fraud

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Federal officials said a New Canaan man on Wednesday was sentenced to one year in prison for health care fraud. The 41-year-old man while working as a sales rep for Hattiesburg, Miss.-based Advantage Pharmacy in 2014 and 2015—and his wife, a hospitalist at Stamford Hospital at the time—“engaged in a scheme to defraud the State of Connecticut Pharmacy Benefit Plan, TRICARE and other health care programs by submitting prescriptions for compound pharmacy medications prepared and dispensed” by the pharmacy, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Though the prescriptions included the wife’s signature, she “did not treat, examine, or even meet with the patients for whom the prescriptions were written,” according to the press release, from the DOJ office of the U.S. attorney in Connecticut. 

“Based on these false and misleading claims, the victim health care programs paid Advantage Pharmacy for the compound prescription drugs,” the press release said. Advantage Pharmacy, in turn, paid commissions of between 15 percent to 35 percent to sales representatives, including the arrested man’s cousin. 

The couple “also induced the victim health care programs to pay Advantage Pharmacy more than $292,000 for their own compound prescription drugs,” the press release said. The scheme yielded more than $1.6 million in losses to the victim health care programs, it said. The man was arrested in June 2018 and found guilty on Feb.

Around Town

Survey: Quality of Schools Tops Reasons for Moving to New Canaan and Staying Here

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Affordability and state taxes are the top reasons New Canaan residents would move to another town or state, newly released survey results say. Property taxes and improved train service are the top suggested changes from locals, according to the results of a survey conducted by a Glastonbury-based market research company. 

More than 20% of 2,151 respondents suggested that New Canaan “improve/maintain train service” by providing more frequent and faster service in order to attract new residents to town, according to the GreatBlue Research survey conducted Jan. 7 to 28 (PDF embedded below). The quality of New Canaan schools are what primarily draws and keeps people here, the survey found. “The highest frequency of surveyed residents (71.8%) reported ‘quality of schools’ is one of the primary reasons they chose to live in New Canaan, followed by ‘downtown village’ (42.1%) and ‘family friendliness/strength of the community’ (35.0%),” GreatBlue’s survey found.

Business

‘It’s Pretty Incredible’: New Canaan’s Steve Gaeta Marks 30 Years Owning C&H Auto

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Town resident Steve Gaeta was just a few years out of high school in 1987, when he started working as a mechanic at the auto repair shop at 186 Main St. 

At the time, Gaeta recalled, the downtown had nine gas stations with auto repair shops, and within a few years the co-owners of the New Canaan Chevron, located near the corner of Main and Maple Streets, in the shadow of then-recently demolished Center School—Charlie and Hank had renamed it ‘C&H Auto’ after themselves—decided to sell. “These guys were probably my age and they were looking for an opportunity to move on,” recalled Gaeta, a New Canaan firefighter who has lived here since the late-1980s and whose daughter graduated from New Canaan High School last year. “We took that opportunity, bought it.”

That was 30 years ago. “It’s pretty incredible,” Gaeta said of the milestone. “I couldn’t be happier.

Animal 411

Dog Euthanized After Attack in New Canaan

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A Darien man had his German shepherd dog euthanized last month after the animal got off-property in eastern New Canaan and attacked two dogs walking past, severely injuring one of them. The incident unfolded on Thayer Pond Road on the morning of Friday, Jan. 3, according to a New Canaan Police Department case report obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request. The owners of the two victim dogs—a Cockapoo and Cocker spaniel—also were injured as they tried to protect their own pets from the large black German shepherd named “Crypto,” according to the incident report from Officer Allyson Halm, head of the NCPD Animal Control section. Crypto was about 13 months old, officials said.

News

Criminal Impersonation Charge for 55-Year-Old Woman

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Police last week arrested a 55-year-old Bridgeport woman by warrant after she gave a false name during a motor vehicle stop last year. At about 5:31 p.m. on Nov. 13, an officer stopped the woman in a vehicle whose registration had been suspended, according to a police report. Authorities obtained a warrant on charges of criminal impersonation and interfering. 

She turned herself in at about 10 a.m. on Feb. 14. 

Police additionally charged her with illegal operation of a vehicle without minimum insurance, operating a motor vehicle without a license and faille to display plates. 

She was released after promising to appear Feb.