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Thursday, May 14, 2026

A handyman, wives, Escalades, ghost pharmacies: A $9 million Miami drug coupon fraud - Tampa Bay Times

MIAMI — Two Kendall men spent seven years — not even pausing during the two years one of them was in prison — raking in $9 million in a scam involving coupons meant to help people pay for prescription drugs. They used friends, wives of friends, shell companies and pharmacies that existed only on paper.

This scam took William Clero from the suburbs to downtown, as in the federal detention center in Miami, after receiving a 17-year, six-month sentence earlier this month for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud. Clero’s partner in his most recent crimes, Cesar Armando Perez Amador, already had been sentenced to seven years, three months.

Each man also got assigned $9,086,476 in restitution. In forfeiture, they lost a 2016 GMC Yukon Denali and 2018 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali that Perez drove; a 2017 BMW that a friend of Clero used; and 2017 and 2019 Cadillac Escalades that Clero drove.

Clero and Perez started their scam in 2014, targeting drug manufacturer programs that used coupons or savings cards to help people cover out-of-pocket costs for certain prescription drugs.

Fake owners, faux pharmacies, real money

The Kendall cronies recruited people to be the listed owners of the pharmacies, which they incorporated and licensed with the State of Florida.

“Once licensed, the pharmacies submitted claims under the drug cost-savings programs for a period of time, and then would be replaced with another pharmacy at the same or another location, all in Miami-Dade County, in the...



Read Full Story: https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida/2022/06/12/a-handyman-wives-escalades-g...