Elderly South Florida mobster Thomas Farese at the top of $93 million healthcare fraud, feds say
Dan Christensen, 04 May 2021
Since the 1970s mobster Tommy Farese has been a recurring character on the pages of South Florida newspapers.
So it was surprising when the reputed Colombo family consiglieri didn’t make the Sun-Sentinel last week for his latest alleged caper: a $93-million health care fraud scheme.
Thomas Ralph Farese, also known as “Tom Mix,” is 78 years old now and living in Delray Beach. But instead of wiling away his golden years playing shuffleboard, Farese was out front in a pair of huge kickback schemes involving “durable medical equipment and genetic cancer screening,” according to the Justice Department.
On his LinkedIn page, Farese calls himself an “entrepreneur.”
Joining Farese as a defendant in the case is old pal, Colombo family associate Pat Truglia, 53, of Parkland. Both men, along with Domenic J. Gatto, 46, of Palm Beach Gardens, and Nicholas Defonte, 72, and Christopher Cirri, 63, both of Toms River, N.J., are charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud between October 2017 and April 2019.
