Queens Pharmacy Owner Indicted on 24 Counts in Alleged $31M Medicaid HIV Drug Buyback Scheme, AG Says

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Wednesday, Oct. 7, that her office has indicted Miguel Baron, 62, of Yonkers, owner of two Jackson Heights pharmacies, on charges he stole more than $31 million from Medicaid and the state's AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP).

The indictment was filed in Queens County Supreme Court in September and unsealed this week. It names Baron and his companies and contains 24 counts, including grand larceny, health care fraud and money laundering. Everything below is an allegation. Baron has not been convicted of anything.

How the alleged scheme worked

The pharmacies at the center of the case are Guardiola Pharmacy and Baron Specialty Pharmacy. According to the AG's office, a years-long investigation by its Medicaid Fraud Control Unit found that from Jan. 1, 2023, to April 29, 2026, Baron and co-conspirators paid Medicaid patients cash kickbacks, often between $150 and $250, to fill HIV prescriptions at the stores.

In some cases, prosecutors say, the pharmacies offered to buy the medication back from patients for a few hundred dollars. The pharmacy was reimbursed thousands of dollars for the same drugs.

The repurchased pills allegedly went back on the shelf and out to other customers. That let the pharmacies bill Medicaid and ADAP multiple times for a single prescription.

In other cases, the AG alleges, Baron's stores handed out medication bought from unlicensed sources while billing the programs for legitimate HIV drugs.

Court documents describe the pricing. Medicaid and ADAP reimbursed pharmacies roughly $4,000 to $4,500 for a 30-day supply of antivirals such as Biktarvy, Descovy, Prezcobix and Truvada, authorities said. Per-pill costs to pharmacies on some of those drugs run as high as $150, according to the filings.

Authorities also allege that staff stripped labels off returned bottles with lighter fluid before re-dispensing them. Court documents put the buyback price at about $400 per bottle, against a $150 to $200 kickback in some cases.

Where the money allegedly went

The AG's office says Baron moved the proceeds from the pharmacies' bank accounts into shell companies he or his associates controlled, to disguise the source and ownership of the money. Those companies allegedly bought real estate, funded construction projects and converted funds into large sums of cash.

The purchases include Miami-area condominiums, among them reservations for high-end units in buildings advertising "luxury amenities" and "boundless opulence." The AG's office also lists a Mercedes-Benz, a Lexus and tickets to the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Miami.

On the same day, James filed a civil asset forfeiture action. It would let her office seize property and place liens on assets allegedly bought with the proceeds. The office is seeking more than $95 million in damages, roughly three times the alleged $31 million take.

Arrest at LaGuardia

Baron was arrested at LaGuardia Airport while trying to board a one-way flight to Toronto, according to the AG's office. The New York Post reported, citing court documents, that he was carrying multiple passports and a wad of cash.

Per those court documents, law enforcement raided his pharmacies on March 12. Right after, Baron allegedly started draining business accounts, including a $20,000 check from a pharmacy account to a delivery driver with the memo line "severance pay + previous balance."

A flight to Canada with several passports will not help him with a judge. It is still evidence prosecutors will have to present and a court will have to weigh.

The patient-safety claim

James framed the case as a health issue as much as a money one. "Taking advantage of vulnerable New Yorkers to steal tens of millions of dollars from Medicaid is despicable," she said. "Pharmacy owners who exploit patients with medication buyback schemes are putting New Yorkers' health at serious risk."

The AG's office alleges patients were pressured to sell their medication instead of taking it as directed, and that some received drugs with no assurance they had been stored properly. Its statement says vulnerable New Yorkers "missed out on lifesaving medication." The announcement does not cite any specific patient harm, and none has been tested in court.

Taxpayers are the other victims. Medicaid and ADAP are public programs funded in part by state dollars, and reimbursement at $4,000 to $4,500 a bottle is what makes buyback fraud so profitable. Each bottle can be billed again and again.

Not the first case

This is a familiar pattern for New York prosecutors. In 2024, a Brooklyn man was sentenced to nine years in prison for selling black market HIV drugs to pharmacies for years. In 2021, the AG's office extradited a man from Pakistan on fraud charges for allegedly working with coconspirators to buy HIV medication back from Medicaid patients in the Bronx.

The cases keep turning up because the payment model rewards the scheme. A pharmacy that gets paid thousands for a bottle it recovered for a few hundred dollars has a built-in incentive to cheat.

What comes next

Baron could not be reached for comment, and no attorney is listed for him in court documents. He is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and none of the allegations has been tested before a judge or jury.

The criminal case and the forfeiture action will proceed in New York state court. The open questions are whether any co-conspirators referenced in the AG's statement will be charged, and how much of the $31 million the state can trace and recover.