Charleston man indicted for multi-million dollar Medicare fraud and Ponzi schemes

BALTIMORE (WCBD) – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland unsealed two indictments against a Charleston man who allegedly was paid millions of dollars defrauding Medicare and defrauded customers of his private charter jet company.

Patrick Britton-Harr, 41, formerly of Annapolis, Maryland, started out offering COVID-19 tests to nursing home patients nationwide.

He would then allegedly bill Medicare through his company Provista Health for respiratory pathogen panel (RPP) tests to get for patients, the attorney’s office said.

The RPP tests were unnecessary, never ordered by a treating physician, and most were not performed. Some of the tests were even ordered for deceased patients, officials explained.

Utilizing Provista Health, Britton-Harr fraudulently claimed over $15 million for RPP tests, which Medicare ended up paying out over $5 million for.

In the second indictment, Britton Harr is accused of using his private charter jet business AeroVanti, Inc. to scam customers.

Through AeroVanti, “Top Gun” clients were encouraged to pay $150,000 upfront to secure block flight hours. In exchange, those funds would be used to buy specific aircraft that those clients would have securitized interest in.

Nearly 100 customers signed up to be Top Gun members, paying about $15 million in upfront payments that were supposed to be used to buy five aircraft, the government said.

However, instead of buying the aircraft, Britton-Harr allegedly used that $15 million to benefit himself by buying things like yachts, jewelry, living expenses, and a property near Tampa, Florida.

To cover up the scheme, Britton-Harr took out a $1.5 million loan to buy an aircraft he had previously claimed he would purchase for Top Gun members. He obtained the loan by withholding material information from the lender.

“Patrick Britton-Harr’s repeated crimes reveal a man with no moral compass motivated by pure greed. His deceit and scheming resulted in a staggering amount of loss to American taxpayers and the public,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno.

Britton-Harr is charged with five counts of healthcare fraud, one count of money laundering, and six counts of wire fraud.

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count and 10 years in prison for each health care fraud and money laundering count.