Former Amtrak Employee Sentenced to 20 Months in Prison for Conspiring to Defraud the Amtrak Health Care Plan and Conspiring to Communicate Extortionate Threats

NEWARK, N.J. - A former Amtrak employee was sentenced today for his role in a health care fraud scheme targeting Amtrak's health care plan and for conspiring to threaten and extort a health care provider, U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer announced.

Devon Burt, 53, of Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty on June 27, 2023, before U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in Newark federal court to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to communicate extortionate threats. Burt was sentenced today to 20 months' imprisonment, two years' supervised release, and ordered to pay $959,072 in restitution.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Burt, a former Amtrak employee, worked with health care providers to recruit Amtrak employees to participate in a health care fraud scheme through the offer of cash payments, in exchange for the employees allowing health care providers to use their patient and insurance information to submit false claims. The health care providers benefitted from the scheme by receiving payments from the Amtrak health care plan for services that were never provided or that were medically unnecessary. Burt received cash payments from providers in return for allowing the providers to use his personal and insurance information, and that of his dependents, to submit fraudulent claims. Burt received cash payments from providers in return for recruiting others to participate in the scheme.

In or around April 2022 through June 2022, Burt and another conspirator conspired to communicate extortionate threats to a health care provider who participated in the scheme. Burt and his conspirator threatened the provider by interstate telephone calls and text messages, indicating that the provider would be injured if the provider did not pay the conspirator several thousand dollars.

The overall scheme targeting the Amtrak health care plan involved dozens of Amtrak employees and multiple health care providers, who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash kickbacks to Amtrak employees over the course of the scheme. In total, the Amtrak health care plan paid over $11 million in fraudulent claims associated with providers connected to the scheme. The Amtrak health care plan paid out approximately $959,072 for claims associated with Burt. The investigation has resulted in the prosecution of nineteen individuals, including Burt. All have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

U.S. Attorney Frazer credited special agents of the Amtrak Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James Harper, the Amtrak Police Department, under the direction of Chief of Police James Cook, and special agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Frank A. Tarentino III in New York, with the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine M. Romano, Deputy Chief of the Bank Integrity, Money Laundering, and Recovery Unit in Newark.

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division (Fraud Division). The Fraud Division is investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people. The Department's work to combat fraud supports President Trump's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.

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Defense counsel: Robert J. DeGroot, Esq.