The United States of Fraud: California Scheme Used Homeless, Elderly People to Steal Billions
Fraud is becoming so commonplace that the American taxpayer should just cut out the middleman and send the alleged criminals a check in the mail.
While that word itself likely sparks images of shady Minnesota “learing”‘ centers, these schemes are proving to be more prevalent, as a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California shows.
On Thursday, the office announced charges against 15 people — including six medical professionals — for health care fraud amounting to $2 billion in claims to government and private programs.
A breakdown of the amount was given as follows:
- A massive $1.6 billion billed after luring people to California for a supposed substance abuse program;
- A sum of $134 million billed to Medicare, which resulted in patients suffering injuries from unnecessary atherectomy procedures;
- Another $138 million billed to Medicare for three different hospice fraud schemes, in which the patients were not even terminally ill.
A fourth scheme to defraud Medi-Cal, the Medicaid program for the state, is said to amount to $270 million through claims submitted for “bogus” prescriptions, as the release put it.
FBI Director Kash Patel made a statement on some of the arrests.
“Today the FBI and our partners executed 8 arrests, with 7 additional defendants charged, after the subjects involved allegedly orchestrated a multi-year healthcare fraud scheme resulting in $1.8 billion in losses,” he said.
“The defendants — including medical professionals — made fraudulent claims to steal from taxpayer funded healthcare and insurance programs, including substance abuse treatment programs, hospice care, and Medicare programs in the Los Angeles area designed to help the most vulnerable,” he continued.
For the largest scheme, the release named a father-son duo, 39-year-old Nathan Young and 71-year-old David Young.
Operating in Los Angeles, they were allegedly sending out “body brokers” to find poor and homeless people, and enrolling them in insurance programs for which they were ineligible, subsequently filing claims for reimbursement.
The defendants would lure patients with hotel rooms, plane rides, cars, and controlled substances, but once they arrived in California, only “premium” patients whose insurance paid out high totals would get comfortable accommodations, while “non-premium” ones would live in what was described as “trap houses.”
With the hospice schemes, KTLA reported that 60-year-old Geoffrey Jimenez of Los Angeles would go to senior centers, allegedly approaching elderly people and offering free medical care while failing to disclose he was enrolling them in hospice.
These seniors did not realize they had been enrolled until Medicare or a physician contacted them.
In Patel’s statement, he cited the work by the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, saying that “stealing from American taxpayers will no longer be tolerated in this country.”
“This FBI will continue to move aggressively with our Department of Justice to dismantle fraud networks stealing from hard working taxpayers,” he added.
This initiative was created via executive order in March.
It’s unnerving to think most of this would still be going on if the administration had not stepped in.
There’s clearly a culture that’s formed in pockets of the country such that your tax dollars are for the taking however these people can get them.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
