Officials arrest 18 in Los Angeles for $33M Medicare fraud

Prosecutors and state investigators rounded up and arrested a group of Los Angeles-area medical device suppliers this week for their alleged involvement in a collective $33 million worth of Medicare fraud schemes. Like Miami, which also plays host to a remarkable number of Medicare scammers, the LA metro is ridden with Medicare fraudsters, according to prosecutors. In this case, the arrested parties were allegedly involved in fraudulent ordering of power wheelchairs, hospital beds, feeding kits and specialized shoes for use by diabetics.

The arrested parties included clinic owners who managed the bogus operations and clinical professionals who put their names on the phony orders. Also involved in the fraud, according to prosecutors, was a Bank of America employee who allegedly helped hide the identity of an ex-con who was fraudulently installed as the purported CEO of one of the sham ventures.

The arrests were made by a investigative team known as the Medicare Fraud Strike force, a group of federal and state officials that began operating in the Los Angeles metro earlier this year. The group has made 175 indictments since its inception, of people allegedly responsible for fraudulently billing Medicare more than half a billion dollars.

To learn more about the arrests:
- read this Los Angeles Times piece

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