Federal agents executed a sweeping takedown of medical fraud in Los Angeles, Thursday, arresting ten defendants—including six doctors—for allegedly bilking the government and private insurers of $2 billion in fraudulent claims.
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The cases involve a sham substance abuse treatment program, doctors performing unnecessary surgeries, and bogus hospice care. A total of 15 suspects have been charged in the operation.
Federal SWAT teams descended on the suspects in a series of predawn raids, including a dramatic entry into a chiropractor’s Tarzana mansion, the New York Post reported.
Chiropractor Dr. Hany Malek and cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Harold Tabaie are accused of performing medically unnecessary atherectomy procedures that allegedly harmed patients.
“As part of this scheme, a chiropractor was purportedly diagnosing the need for invasive endovascular procedures that involved removing plaque from blood vessels with a bladed catheter,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin Michael McDonald during a press conference Thursday announcing the arrests.
The doctors also allegedly performed atherectomies on blood vessels that had no disease, McDonald said.
The attorney told reporters that $50 million Medicare dollars were allegedly defrauded as part of these particular schemes.
Malek, 61, was living in a 6-bedroom home with a massive pool and was known to neighbors as a crook, the Post reported.
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He reportedly kept an arsenal of weapons inside his $2 million Tarzana mansion and was considered “armed-and-dangerous.”
Malek allegedly used his ill-gotten cash “to fund a high-flying lifestyle, including a fleet of luxury cars and boats he parked in trailers on the street.”
“He was not a nice man,” said one neighbor.
In the Justice Department’s largest-ever substance abuse treatment fraud prosecution, Nathan Young and his father David Young were caught running a $1.6 billion operation using “body brokers” to recruit homeless individuals and addicts from across the country for fake rehab programs in Los Angeles. The defendants allegedly lured the vulnerable patients with cash and illegal drugs. In lieu of treatment, according to court papers, the fraudsters had the addicts “lay out on [the] beach,” which was subsequently billed to insurance companies as therapy.
“Some were even pushed to take drugs or alcohol so they would appear eligible for detox,” McDonald said.
Three other defendants were charged with billing Medicare over $138 million for hospice services for patients who were not terminally ill.
“Today is not the end of our work in Los Angeles,” said McDonald. “We will root out the fraud that has permeated this town and this state.”
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