The Criminal Travels of Michael Brier: Fraudulent Tax Preparer to Suboxone Clinic Cheat

The Criminal Travels of Michael Brier: Fraudulent Tax Preparer to Suboxone Clinic Cheat

In July of 2016, Fox Point neighbors and business owners contacted GoLocal, raising concerns about who was opening a new Suboxone therapy clinic on Wickenden Street.

The man behind the Suboxone business, Michael Brier, was a former Rhode Island tax preparer who had previously been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison in 2013. He was prosecuted by the Department of Justice.

One of his victims was a local resident and client.

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"Basically, as a small business owner, finding out your tax preparer got arrested for fraud isn't exactly good news," said Chris Daltry, a Providence resident who had been a client of Brier's. "Maybe he's reformed, but based on his history, he's not exactly trustworthy."

Brier threatened GoLocal in 2016 and threatened his critics.

Brier was less than pleased to hear anyone had concerns. "If they're talking about me, if they have any balls, they'll come to my door, and ask me," Brier told GoLocal in 2016, after threatening the news site if it wrote about his past practices.

 

Fast Forward

On Thursday, U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha announced that Brier, the owner of a Rhode Island-based chain of addiction treatment centers and his company, who together defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and other health insurers out of millions of dollars and shortchanged patients suffering from substance abuse disorder in Rhode Island and Massachusetts out of much-needed counseling and treatment, pleaded guilty in federal in Providence to health care fraud conspiracy.

The man pleading guilty is none other than Brier. He and Recovery Connections Centers of America, Inc. (RCCA) admitted to a federal judge that they failed to provide patients with required counseling sessions and treatment, while simultaneously billing Medicare, Medicaid, and other healthcare payors for 45-minute counseling sessions on a routine basis even though the sessions were often only 5-10 minutes or less.

Brier and RCCA also admitted that they caused a fraudulent application to be submitted to Medicare which, among other things, misrepresented and concealed the role that Brier was playing in the business and failed to disclose Brier’s 2013 criminal conviction for federal tax crimes, which was relevant to Medicare’s consideration of the application; Brier was sentenced to 27 months incarceration by a federal judge as a result of that 2013 conviction.

Court documents illustrate that, if plea agreements filed in this matter are accepted by the Court, Brier will be sentenced in this case to between six and ten years of incarceration, followed by three years of federal supervised release. Additionally, Brier will be ordered to make restitution of more than $3.4 million and will forfeit assets realized as a result of his criminal conduct, including approximately one million dollars contained in various bank and investment accounts, his interest in a beachfront condominium in Caracol Beach, Panama, a 2020 Mercedes Benz, and a 2019 Lexus RX350.

The corporate entity, RCCA, which is now in receivership, faces maximum penalties of $500,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greater, and up to five years probation.

Brier and RCCA are scheduled to be sentenced on November 6, 2024. The defendants’ sentences will be determined by a federal district court judge after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.