Feds busted Los Angeles medical fraudsters accused of stealing $2 billion Thursday, cuffing white-collar thieves for unneeded surgeries, hunting the homeless for rehabs and billing the government for phony hospice care.
Department of Justice officials charged 15 defendants in all, including medical professionals, for making fraudulent claims to government and private health care programs – including $1.6 billion sham rehab case, the largest of its type ever.
The California Post was there as Federal SWAT teams sought their suspects in a series of predawn raids, targeting high-class criminals such as Dr. Hany Malek, 61, an allegedly armed-and-dangerous chiropractor accused of keeping an arsenal in his $2 million Tarzana mansion.
“Come out with your hands up,” called an FBI agent in the huge, gun-toting team of camouflaged officers who encircled Malek’s massive suburban home with a swarm of armed vehicles.
Agents cut Malek’s security gate and placed ladders against his tall fences, training guns on his home. Three flash-bang grenades exploded and sirens were activated.
After a few moments, the FBI brought their man down in handcuffs and placed in him an armored truck.
Worse than stealing billions from people who really needed treatment:
Malek is accused of working with Dr. Harold Tabaie, 78, of Anaheim, a cardiothoracic surgeon, of stealing $134 million in fraudulently billed to Medicare claims for unnecessary atherectomy procedures that resulted in injury to patients.
Authorities say Malek posed as a medical doctor and diagnosed patients with arterial disease, recommending that they receive the invasive procedure in which a bladed catheter is used to clear plaque from arteries.
Tabaie then performed the procedures on patients who did not actually have disease, executing repeat atherectomies on some who he previously treated unsuccessfully with the procedure, prosecutors say.
Wow! Remember, if you or someone you know was planning to vote Democrat next month because you are pissed off about gas prices, this is probably a bigger financial burden.
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